Thank you for the past behind, the future ahead, and us in between.

Thank you for a chance to love on Oliver the donkey at Kindred Spirits, after he dropped the flannel button-down he’d been taunting its owner with.

Thank you for Pedro (alpaca) toofs.

Thank you for nasturtiums and beet greens in the garden with KB, and for the ladies who introduced us to their floral munchies.

Thank you for BO taking several of us to visit Gordy and Peanut.

Thank you again for outliers like Karen and Nate who dedicate their existence to noble causes.

Thank you for (quasi) logical thoughts that resolve emotional turmoils. For instance, think of people (like you or me) disliking others (like me or you). How could anyone dislike you if they don’t know you? Then they only dislike an image of you. And how could anyone who truly knows you, dislike you? Once they understand, even if you’re deeply troubled, they’ll see your struggles while recognizing your value. They’ll see, the same challenges that render us “prickly” at times also render us worthy of compassion (albeit in some cases from a safe distance). So, positive regard is the only true option.

Thank you for linguine with garlicky tomato sauce.

Thank you for gratitude bombs. That’s when we pause a moment to think of as many things as possible that we’re grateful for. It can be little stuff in the immediate surroundings, like the long tapered hands of a clock, the color of someone’s yoga pants, the posture of a passerby, the caress of a breeze, the feel of toes inside shoes, the sound of birds chirping, the air expanding lungs…

Thank you for RA showing me around the canyons. Thank you for a breathtaking ride up Piuma and down Stunt.

Thank you for D teaching me how to use the machines and free weights at the Y, and for C giving me the rundown on her tabata workouts.

Thank you for picking oranges in C’s backyard, and for her hubs suggestion to give them to neighbors at the park.

Thank you for G manifesting a road bike and buying a helmet.

Thank you for a borrowed book on manifesting (even though I’m less into certain types of petitions). To be open and positive, it makes sense, will attract more of the same. Thank you for abundance mindsets.

Thank you for popcorn and movie nights with D and G. Thank you for their humor. Thank you for the chance to share a space with humans I may never have known under other circumstances. Thank you for their sons. Thank you for our extraordinary landlady and friend. 

Thank you for the kindness of our little community. Hopefully we’ll stay bonded even when circumstances change.

Thank you for safe feelings in social settings.

Thank you for health and wellness coaching that bestows more intention on life.

Thank you for chats with Sisters and “sisters.” Thank you for the inspiration, empowerment, warmth, and uplift of women respecting each other and themselves.

Thank you for big sisters’ big sisters understanding their sibs with compassion.

Thank you for our love being perpetually imperfect. I mean, that may be a good thing if you like to grow, because there will always be chances for it.

Thank you for learning as a cure for boredom.

Thank you for soft cozy throw blankets.

Thank you for life teaching me it’s okay to be more open. The right support networks probably make a difference. Who in my circles is likely to hurt me for expressing myself? How compassionately I communicate matters, too. If I feel hurt, I can take responsibility for my feelings. I can address the issue with care and respect—for all involved, myself included. Doing so will hone communication skills, establish boundaries, reinforce gratitude... It’s also useful to trust: progress flows from persistent, honest (kind) effort.

Thank you a million times over for our diligent attempts at wellness in tiny ways everyday.  

Thank you for optimism gained from experience. Witnessing transformations, others’ and one’s own, grows hope. 

Thank you for enjoyment of lying in bed listening to silence, breathing.

Thank you for nights in coach on Amtrak last month to enhance appreciation of the cushioned, horizontal snooze.

Thank you for strangers’ kindness to strangers for no apparent reason. (Do you notice it more lately, too?)

Thank you for memories of peaceful nights in the tiny house on the hill. Thank you for intimacy with nature.

Thank you for Audrey the fluffy goldendoodle letting me pet her. Thank you for when her sweet mama drove us on an outing, and Audrey climbed onto the center console from the back seat. Her cute little nose sniffed my face. 

Thank you for the light of dogs in our lives. 

Thank you for awareness that my perspective is a bit narrow lately. It hasn’t always been this way, and this won’t continue forever. (Maybe staying a little bit nearsighted is beneficial, sometimes.)

Thank you for one day at a time.

Thank you for nature’s healing power.

Thank you for your faith in that universal power outside and within you. Sending you love!

Thank you for lines from the Tao Te Ching:

Map difficult through easy

Approach great through narrow

The most difficult things in the world

Must be accomplished through the easiest

The greatest things in the world

Must be accomplished through the smallest.

Thank you for the Morning Pages habit and benefits it brings.

Thank you for the color and smell of gochugaru.

Thank you for allowing thoughts. (This may be a repeat.) Years ago I set the rule that thoughts are a safe space. I decided never to shut out a thought, whether it imagines something heinous like beating up an old lady or cursing out a little kid, or is randomly inappropriate like yelling in a library. There is no, “Stop thinking about it.”

The freedom encourages me to process. I’m not pushing out but am tugging and digging —“From where does this thought or feeling arise? Why is it here? What would result from acting on it?”

To me, it’s like the Bible passage Mark 9:43-47 advising that if your eye or hand causes you to sin, then cut it off. I (mis)interpret that advice as a call to seek causes. When we look at the cause of a less-than-healthy inclination, it won’t be a hand or an eye. It may instead be the influences we absorb (media we consume, for instance, or people we’re around)…stuff like that. 

Thank you for how Peaches has transformed my life. It’s a lesson in the ease of making a difference. Peaches doesn’t talk. She has zero dollars or education and very little stuff. Her meals are humble. Her dress, basic. She’s content with simplicity. She accepts and she forgives. Being real—exuberant, affectionate, calm, aware, curious, hungry, vulnerable—how much light she adds to the world!

Thank you for the vets and vet techs and front desk staff at Aztec Animal Clinic caring for my sweet lady.

Thank you for geese honking in the sky over SR 313.

Thank you for a new way to see life challenges (a bike ride thought). The sum of them can seem like a mountain—a heap of difficulties piled up, blocking freedom. To whittle down the mountain, we may use what meager or grand tools we have to dig. 

As we plow down, though, life adds on. We start to realize—we’ll never level it this way. So how do we make a real dent? And how will doing so ever help if life relentlessly builds? The struggle will be nonstop. 

The thought was, external life doesn’t block our way. We needn’t combat nature because the Mountain that’s stalling us isn’t out there. I mean, rather than referring to happenings beyond us, the heap of hardships is within—in the way we think and feel about the landscape outside.

Since it’s in our minds, it’s not actually blocking our way through the external world. Not having “level ground” outside us is compatible with moving forward as long as we have choices. And as for the ranges in our heads that seem insurmountable, we can actually think our way through them. In their center, deep under the base, are seeds from which our living inner mountains grow.  We can examine that base and below it to the roots. Then, even the inner peaks are not obstacles but guides.

Thank you for the OG male supermodel on the RRP discussing mental health for men and the call for them to engage in real and vulnerable ways. Thank you also for the talk of mentors. 

Thank you for my first serious mentors (in grad school on the west coast). It’s counterintuitive how they built me up by giving break after break. They weren’t hard on me. They didn’t rage or insult. It showed me to be kinder to myself. In turn, I felt warmer toward others. 

Thank you for stable and mature adults who communicate wisdom from experience to those in their charge. 

Thank you for sureness that solidifies from questioning what we deserve. Thank you for awareness as a byproduct of discerning other perspectives. Thank you for compassion.

Thank you for luxurious self-care rituals. 

Thank you for little happy moments like quiet breakfasts, rides lost in thought, warm baths, cozy bedtimes, fun reads, movie nights, heartfelt chats, doggy cuddles…that strung together make for a happier life.

Thank you for BT hanging curtains in my room as a surprise. Thank you for her patience and understanding during a challenging time.

Thank you for unapologetic hope in truth and healing for all, with the understanding that I’m responsible solely for my own truth and healing. Please wish me healing. Please wish me success in efforts to stay clear of what is less than healthy and focus on what nourishes (like gratitude). If you are choosing to read this, I hope you find nourishment in it, too. 

Thank you for this article on self sabotage and for this quote from it: “Love the person you’re becoming, and believe you have something special to share with the world.”