Thank you always for everyday miracles. 

Thank you for an all-blue big rig, like a huge bright toy, spotted on a ride toward Sandia Crest. Thank you for a dream showing it to me a couple nights before it popped up in real life. I’m grateful for funny coincidences sending messages that we’re not alone. 

Thank you for dreams. Thank you for corny songs that say we deserve to dream.

Thank you for Andrew Huberman’s info to demystify what happens when we’re under the influence. For instance, he shared two different identified causes for the munchies. If I remember correctly, one has to do with actual bodily hunger, or increased appetite; another is psychological and results from the tendency to zoom in narrowly on thoughts. Under certain influences, if we’re hungry or have a craving, our minds’ obsessive focus may intensify it. 

Thank you for knowledge that empowers.

Thank you for instead of feeding depression, feeding love. I feed love in how I choose to see others. I feed it with affectionate regard, kind boundaries, and forgiveness. I feed it when letting go of anger to hold compassion.

Thank you for our narratives that serve as voice overs for life’s episodes. Filling in gaps or uncertainties with charitable descriptions feeds love. 

Thank you for belief in goodness molding approaches to life.

Thank you for hundreds of school kids walking along Juan Tabo during a morning stroll recently. First I tried to avoid them. Then, when I crossed to their side of the street, several waved at me. Even more cheered after I waved back. A teenage girl gave me a high five (not sure why). Strangers’ attention mattered to them. I wonder if they knew how they uplifted strangers.

Thank you for human connections. 

Thank you for the street lights along the block flashing on and off and on again when “Love Will Find a Way” repeated in my headphones. 

Thank you for running into J and C at Sprouts during an emergency trip for a chocolate chip cookie. J showed up in the cookie section eyeing the same treats as me. Thank you for his buying the box I’d picked out and letting me have just the two that I wanted. Thank you for a happy chat with C and Seppe in the parking lot while he finished shopping. 

Thank you for J (a BFAM) always thinking of how to give.

Thank you for a funny perspective brought on by dreams. Have you ever stepped back and looked at your life from the outside, like watching a movie, with the you that’s living now as a character? If you were watching your life play out on screen, what “ending” would you want? 

I don’t mean the very final ending. I mean the happily-ever-after resolutions along the way, where the troubled kid sees the light, the guy gets the girl, the prisoner becomes free, the oppressed weather war…

What’s different from real life is often you can tell how movies will unfold. The pivotal moments stand out in advance, and you can root for beloved characters to choose options that seem to lead them higher. 

How would I feel about my path if I could see my life from the outside? (Not that our circumstances are all up to us. But I guess how we respond to them is. IDK…)

Thank you for a new batch of inspiration from Thich Nhat Hanh teaching videos.

Thank you for mindfulness of painful feelings.

Thank you for resting in the universe. “Most of our suffering comes from our wrong perceptions. That is why we should have the time to consider, to look deeply into the nature of our perceptions in order not to be caught in them, by them.”

Thank you for peace in ourselves. “If we have some peace in our body, in our feelings, in our emotions, in our perceptions, then we can help the other to have peace in his or her emotions, perceptions, and feelings also. We have to begin with ourselves.”

And a real zinger: “You are tired. You feel tired as a wave, and you want to be water. And you hope that you can find water somewhere. But in fact water is in you, is you…. If the wave continues to run, she will never see and meet water. The only way for the wave to meet the water is to go home to herself.”

Thank you for Peter Attia on the Rich Roll Podcast discussing his anger—e.g., a tantrum where he literally threw a table across a room in front of his partner. Not many “successful” people are so vulnerable about their struggles. When they are, it shows we all have stuff. We’re not alone. 

Thank you for Sister shares expanding horizons.

Thank you for inspiration from loved ones.

Thank you for PFEs. I wish them on you in abundance!

Thank you for your positive karma when you do something difficult that adds light. It may hurt like a failure at first, like a test you know you bombed before even seeing the results. 

If you were trying to do what’s honest—if your intent held love—the ultimate “grade” reflects that. And true results are not superficial like a grade. They’re the good that grows from intentions planted in action. 

Thank you for a drawing of peonies in the hallway closet sparking a heartfelt chat.

Thank you the romance of a simpler life possible in the next few years. 

Thank you for adventures where days are so pared down that “brush teeth” goes on the to-do list.

Thank you for New River Gorge in West Virginia, for postcard landscapes from train windows.

Thank you for shuffle playing the right songs at the right times. Like a song about West Virginia just before we arrived there, and another about a train heading into a station as we inched into the DC station.

Thank you for a meaningful visit with LF in DC. Thank you for genuine friends.

Thank you for rewards to self. To grow, I can give tiny rewards like sincere encouragement immediately after I do desired behaviors.

Thank you for psychology (cognitive, behavioral…) applied to selves. Thank you for tools to align us with our dreams and visions.

Thank you for role models, for people who inspire. Who are yours? Who has overcome hardship in a standout way? Who are you proud to be like?

Thank you for interesting perspectives from the latest read (a health coaching book). Here’s one: When I’ve tried something many times and not succeeded, that means my persistence is strong. And in those repeated efforts are clues of what’s important to me.

Thank you for meta-cognitions.

Thank you for construction of a home mindset while a real life home materializes. 

Thank you for times we’ve struggled to heed our heart’s call.

Thank you for when awareness of emotions and their consequences leads us to protect loved ones (and strangers) from our less-than-positive sides.

Thank you for self doubts that evidence the courage to ask difficult questions.

Thank you for when we’ve given respect to those not used to receiving it.

Thank you for your kindness helping others to feel heard, valued, and connected. Thank you for your warmth melting their cold.

Thank you for your insecurities showing your humility.

Thank you for the joy in you sparking joy in others.

Thank you for when your peacefulness instills a sense of peace.