Thank you for questions that stay fresh even with a ton of thought, which makes them like idea machines.

Thank you for life and love not looking how I would have imagined.

Thank you for when we see through illusions.

Thank you for the ironies of well being.

Thank you for the sun never actually rising or setting.

Thank you for restful nights.

Thank you for Laura Lynne Jackson describing us as cords of light connected like ribbons on a maypole. It’s especially interesting to me that higher up, the ribbons are closer to each other and to their source.

Thank you for affection from a stray cat with a snaggle tooth.

Thank you for memories carried with the smells Peachy used to enjoy—toasting bread, pizza in the oven, burritos from Chipotle…

Thank you for the mature tree bursting with cherries on Academy.

Thank you for my mom asking, “Did you try that Bitchin’ Sauce yet?”

Thank you for big sisters. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your strength strengthening me. Thank you for your health and happiness.

Thank you for Spanish broom smelling like Sweetarts.

Thank you for cacti in bloom.

Thank you for lotions and potions on skin no longer too sensitive for them.

Thank you for a bumble bee the color of an Irish Setter, docking in a flower.

Thank you for the happy surprise of halving a perfect avocado.

Thank you for New Mexico sunsets.

Thank you for the mysterious laptop gremlin that forced a break from screen time.

Thank you for the lifted mood from a license plate in the parking lot by the Apple store: R****88. (One of the numbers was one away.)

Thank you for your belief in your worth. Thank you for forgiveness of yourself.

Thank you for rising above.

Thank you for new wellness tools in Transforming Trauma, which so far is also helping me to understand better how our brains (yours and mine) operate.

Thank you for positive change made simpler with tools to do the job. They can be skills, knowledge, practices, habits.... Realizing better versions of myself is less a moral battle waged by soldiers of discipline and more a matter of acquiring and using basic tools to render what seems impossible easily doable. 

Thank you for control over inner narratives. For instance, the narrative attached to the unforeseen cancellation of the northern CA trip. My habit patterns want me to depict it as a harsh omen. But what if I had over planned, and so being forced to do less actually will be healthier? Or leaving later than expected will free time to finish projects in NM? Who knows. My plans weren’t what the universe had in mind. I can find positive in the disruption.

Thank you for the story about the Zen farmer (“Good luck. Bad luck. Who knows?”), which I don’t think means that good and bad are objectively baseless. We aren’t able to judge or label what happens in our lives—episodes, events—as good or bad, from our limited perspectives.

Thank you for reminders when it feels as if too much is happening in too tight of a space. There is help. Every feat is done with support. (What doesn’t end up happening is okay, too.) 

Thank you for everyday efforts toward wellness essentials like rest and diet and exercise.

Thank you for the inestimable value accrued from tiny achievements over time. 

Thank you for gifts our struggles unearth. Life humbling me leaves me more understanding and forgiving. It introduces true friends. It deepens space for love.

Thank you for levity from another lucid dream of swimming through the air. (Do you have lucid dreams, too?)

Thank you for diligence with self care.

Thank you for connections that elevate.

Thank you for understanding that expands hearts.