“Had I been put in a position to manage great affairs, I would have shown what I could do.” Have you been able to think out and manage your life? You have performed the greatest work of all.  —Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Thank you for the harmony of berry blends.

Thank you to a hawk and an egret on a walk for pulling me back to the present. 

Thank you for two cornerstones of thriving relationships of all kinds: solid, loving communication and trust. Respect could be a foundation. And on them is built freedom’s shelter? I don’t know.

Thank you for an owl fly-by above an evening stroll followed, a few yards later, by a shooting star as The Power of Love fed into my earbuds. 

Thank you for an even more brilliant starlike spectacle during a walk last night as more random songs showered my ears with positivity.

Thank you for practice elevating others’ energy. Thank you for practice letting others elevate mine. (Smiles and such.)

Thank you for bouncy locks from a fresh trim. 

Thank you if there is something I feel called toward. I do well when I ready myself to meet it. 

Thank you for precision fermentation and cultured meat, not out of interest in engineered foods per se. Of interest is agricultural transformation.

Thank you for prayers that animal agriculture will be replaced with healthier models.

Thank you for relational savoring. 

Thank you for dreams outside the lines.

Thank you for serious silliness.

Thank you not only for the greater sense of control over my life (the surrendering to right powers) lately but also for eagerness to live.

Thank you for moments open to guidance.

Thank you for beauty and love in a world (even one on the brink of collapse).

Thank you for a dream of feeding loved ones at home. Thank you for simple basics.

Thank you for the stacks at the local public library (Mythology, Religion, Self Help, Sociology, Civil Rights…) by the comfy seats in the corner.

Thank you for cycles of hunger and fullness every day. 

Thank you again for more thoughts on healing. To move through self loathing involves not identifying with my problems. When I see my shortcomings as part of me, as how I am (“I’m a this or that”), it becomes much harder to rise. 

When instead I see my less healthy bits as not integral to me, then I can observe them like objects held in my hands. I can face them, talk about them from a removed stance, explore what they serve, make amends for damage they’ve caused, etc. I may be able to release them, to realize higher potential.

Thank you for a dream that compared karma to a law of conservation of energy. Maybe, in the overall picture, what I put into my life is no more or less than what I will get out.

Thank you for yoga and a Hindu temple visit with G and O before they deposited me at the train station. Thank you for listening and talking, and for laughter. Thank you for deer sightings.

Thank you for a loving send off from the cottage family. Thank you for their acceptance and warmth this past year. Thank you for when we all will be together next. 

Thank you for a quiet lady seat mate on the train. Thank you for a safe trip. Thank you for what may be a peaceful getaway until the C of O happens. 

Thank you for the Southwest Chief conductor. Rather than laying down the law at the start of our journey, he requested over and over that we be kind and patient with each other, that we treat others how we’d want to be treated. Thank you for leadership cultivating kindness. 

Thank you for reads that inspire. Thank you for Spinoza snippets, like this one, from a Goodwill find:

Of all things beyond my power, I value nothing more than friendship with people who sincerely love the truth, for I believe that of the things beyond our power, there is nothing in the world we can love with tranquility except such people. 

Thank you for a full heart from opening the text message app and scrolling down the roster of loved ones and acquaintances and business contacts. 

Thank you for chats (at the train depot).

Thank you for what’s seen as weird.

Thank you always for the times I try to choose the hard way, not because it’s hard per se, but when it seems wiser. Heeding the call enriches life. 

Thank you for discomforts embraced. Thank you for their gifts of patience and calm. Thank you for efforts to face reality head on. (May they grow in all of us.)

Thank you for sometimes seeing through illusions. Making days more convenient may appear to enhance them. The reality, though, is that often convenience isolates us: shortcuts may unburden us of the need to cooperate, and so we’re deprived of connections rich with meaning. The easy way also removes effort, a mechanism that, combined with rest, generates “ahas.”

Thank you for the value in added texture. 

Thank you for the right kinds of challenges (honest and patient, selfless yet self-respecting, upright with integrity…)

Wishing us the wisdom to exalt noble efforts and the mindfulness to savor them. 

Know you are loved <3