I came up with something that I repeat as often as I have a voice: It's impossible to travel the road to peace unless you first cross the bridge of forgiveness.

And, you know, the only hope of peace and happiness that I have is to, the minute something like that comes up - and it does… Forgiveness is not a light switch; it's a dimmer. And, you know, somebody keeps sneaking over and turning it up. But you have to be - you have to be mindful. You have to not go to the fear, not go to the anger, not go to that side, but go to the love of yourself, of your family.

- Bruce Lisker on NPR

Thank you for RP sharing with me Mr. Lisker’s story of wrongful imprisonment (26 years) for the murder of his adoptive mother.

Thank you for bridge people. They’re addicts recovered. Terminally ill healed. Dropouts with degrees. Wealthy who gained by loss and poor prevailing in abundance… 

Thank you for bridges of hope across impassable divides. 

Thank you for our ancestors protecting us.

Thank you for the honor to feel respected by the company we keep.  Thank you for our boundaries, our self esteem, nourishing respect.

Thank you for housemates’ thoughtful gifts. D came home with Clearly Canadians for bike rides. G brought almonds for smoothies, and then a dragon fruit. Thank you for our kitchen talks.

Thank you for the majesty of non human animals. Thank you for creatures at Kindred Spirits all having names—Pedro, Elvis, Vegan, Carmen, Bill, Ted… Thank you for Karen and Nate giving animals sanctuary. Thank you for the calm life in wordless expressions. (Mute sentience resembles my little girl.) 

Thank you for the New Yorker running an article on animal welfare. 

Thank you a million times over for even energy from massive smoothies washing down plates of greens and handfuls of berries.

Thank you for cold sleek door handles.

Thank you for squirrel shindigs beyond the kitchen window. 

Thank you for pit stops on rides. 

Thank you for gratuitous messages on the bottom of soda bottles (e.g., “Good thoughts. Good words. Good deeds.”)

Thank you for AV sending home dealers her design and specifications to order my house this winter. Thank you for her patience. 

Thank you for a fantasy to stay local with minimal visits into town. (Have you ever returned from a long trip and wanted only to hole up in your room?)

Thank you for SM’s healing. Thank you for wise father figures. Thank you for loved ones there for him.

Thank you for Sisters’ messages twinkling with love like holiday lights. 

Thank you for our protectors and those we protect.

Thank you for mutual positive regard. 

Thank you for NM’s month of travel (which hopefully includes rest).

Thank you for nudists. 

Thank you for the voices of interesting, caring humans all around. Thank you for when we appreciate them.

Thank you for decorating the tree with O and G. Thank you for our star on top. Thank you for our cozy digs. Thank you for nurturers of warmth. 

Thank you for meeting another phenomenal neighbor who hopefully will be a friend. 

Thank you for the gift of neighbors’ company on a ride.

Thank you for reveling in humor (the kind kind).  

Thank you for perfect cycling weather. 

Thank you for your and my focus on positives. They are legion!

Thank you for loved ones making life not just full but meaningful. 

Thank you for relative sobriety clearing thoughts. (Life is hazy enough sans tipsiness.) A lifted chemical fog reveals situations and people less filtered. And when pesky heaps of suffering aren’t as obscured, we can navigate around them. Landmarks show better too—dreams and values as guides.

Thank you for the humbling that resulted from my misplaced temper recently.

Thank you for grace of loving friends.

Thank you for overflowing emotions. 

Thank you for everyday cries.

Thank you for a safe train and bus ride with a sizable hiccup passengers took in stride.

Thank you for Christmastime in New Mexico. Thank you for open space.

Thank you for a mom whose past enjoyment of holiday decorating cultivated coziness. Thank you for this year reminiscent of then except maybe happier. Thank you for a warm welcome.

Thank you for year’s end, faire le bilan. On the down side for me is diminished focus lately. And I’ve struggled with intense flares of anger (although overall grumpiness seems reduced). Positivity may be on the rise; ease too, in some ways. New friends feel like a blessing.

What’s the difference between you this time last year and you now? (Viewed with nonjudgemental curiosity, please)

Thank you for 2024 resolutions:

1. Practice listening deeply to remove suffering

2. Practice surrendering to intuition

3. Practice elevating energy

4. Speak up (kindly) for self

5. Do (healthful) activities that attract and scare you

What are yours? It’s okay not to have any. Mine are sort of things I’d set out to do anyway.

Thank you for your dog(s).

Thank you for your peace adding to the world’s.

Wishing you warm company and easy smiles this holiday season. May your hope be the seed from which your truest dreams flourish!

Thank you for “Every fall leaves a scar. And those scars are there to remind us, not what went wrong, but what went right.” Is that cheesy? (It’s Will Evans.)

Thank you for woodpecker and blue jay fly-bys kicking off bike adventures.

Thank you for casual poop talk.

Thank you for a full house this week (popping off). Thank you for harmony.

Thank you for Duolingo showcasing goofy phrases like “J’ai renversé mes nouilles.”

Thank you for embracing joy in the juggle of life. 

Thank you for articles raising awareness of wealth (and emissions). Are you in the top ten percent, too?

Thank you for the four pebbles of freshness, solidity, still water, and freedom. (Is that right?) I could use a mega dose of them all lately.

Thank you for the nerve to stick up for myself when it felt like I was treated less than well this week. Even if I reacted rather than responded—causing more hurt—I’m glad to have said something. Thank you for forgiveness of us all.

Thank you for wake up calls to how much more healthy I could be. Thank you for determination to keep trying. Thank you for wellness practices. Thank you for compassion.

Thank you for old lessons, like the one from leaving a job at a homeless shelter in Hollywood to start Ivy League grad studies in NY. (Sorry if it’s another repeat.) The job was with an extremely low-SES population, and the studies were with crazy-high-SES folks.

It showed good is everywhere. Some contrasts, though, made a lasting impression. I decided that bits of what society values may actually be less good for us as individuals. And hardships, lack of status, etc., sometimes spur maturity, humility, compassion, human decency...

Thank you for Covenant House residents.

Thank you for good relationship advice.

Thank you for the latest read, Blink. The part about brutal police thinking like autistic folks should have been checked for kindness and accuracy. Still that book is eye opening (no pun intended). I learned about myself.

Thank you for an LLJ-inspired thought: contentment increases by moving out of the dark and approaching light. No one can deliver light to me. It’s not like I can remain in a less happy place and relocate happier, healthier things and people down to my level. (Doing so may have the opposite effect.) What works is me actually traveling from a dimmer locale toward the desired, “lighter” direction. Proximity to the origin of light makes us shine because we’re simply vessels.

The great thing for us is that maybe we will dwell in the company of “lighter” beings when we’re nearer the source, when the light that brightens them is also close enough to energize us. Is that sort of what it means to move to a better place? I wonder if healthy relationships involve mutual encouragement to be lightward bound.

Thank you for refusals of conventional media. When not immersed in it, glimpses are more transparent.

Thank you for information that shows behind the curtain (for instance, Blink fills us in on sensation transference).

Thank you again for plain brown packaging, second-hand goods, rescued mutts, whole foods. Thank you for value in what isn’t so promoted.

Thank you for another benefit of relative freedom from dependence: improved regulation of emotions. It leads to more evenness, or less unevenness. That builds trust.

Thank you for Samber.

Thank you for SM’s calm carrying him through a life-threatening situation. Thank you for his presence. 

Thank you for the miracle of health restored. Thank you for hope nourished.

Thank you for your prayers.

Thank you for miracles in your life, big and tiny, obvious and subtle.

Thank you for grace and gifts to come. May they bombard you with love <3

Thank you for kisses from little Audrey (goldendoodle).

Thank you for dog communication—pawing, licking, jumping, wiggling….

Thank you for when forgetting one’s self, in a funny way, births bravery.

Thank you for the unaffected variety of daring after ego sees its place in the universe across time.

Thank you for the cuteness of a puppy hiking a leg to pee on a plant.

Thank you for the funkiness of pepitas (especially in pestos).

Thank you for a little happiness.

Thank you for meditation on impermanence.

Thank you always for letting go of cows. Thank you for the rolling hills, the full moon, the blue sky, the beach, the river…

Thank you many times over for unfortunate situations actually feeling that way, when the feeling prompts transformation.

Thank you for a therapist’s inquiry about core values leading me to a past journal entry. 

Thank you for how much easier it is to think about values when secluded in a mountaintop haven with a sweet pooch.

Thank you for when our values guide daily living. (I’m less aware lately, so recalling an ideal self is a great idea.)

Thank you again for sock searches and rescues in oceans of sheets. 

Thank you for the quiet of naked blinks and the swish of mascara-y ones.

Thank you for peaceful wordless sounds. 

Thank you for calm voices.

Thank you for living simply on homegrown pleasure. I used to outsource pleasure more. My brain got so accustomed to depending on externals that it cut back production of its own feel-good stuff. 

So maybe it took a while for my newly sober-ish brain (all those years ago) to accept that it no longer would have its “happiness” delivered like an Amazon package. Slowly, it did grow to accept the new normal. Domestic manufacturing ramped back up. The feels I’d been importing, my self began to produce on its own. Now, endogenous elixirs boost peaceful moods simply and naturally (at least more so than before). 

Thank you for secondhand goods’ worth being more than material. 

Thank you for energies that linger in the belongings of those who’ve crossed, etc.

Thank you for recent Goodwill magic. Like on the last thrifting run, a Peach song greeted me. This time, the first book I picked up—Blink—had a cookie fortune tucked inside: Your troubles will cease and good fortune will smile upon you. The tees were soft, and the people were kind.

Thank you if practicing wellness makes me better at practicing wellness. (And if it benefits more than me.)

Do you ever feel like you’re not really good at any one thing? I do. We all have gifts to offer. They needn’t be big-name items. Wellbeing invested in diligently counts. What’s unspoken or undervalued can be priceless: caring, forgiving, practicing kindness, staying mindful (intentional…present…), cultivating equanimity, creating safe environments, being honest, having tenacity, offering warmth.… 

Thank you for exploration of promise. 

Thank you for when we pursue our calling.

Thank you again for Dad having young me try a bite of his latest veggies from the garden. I didn’t like the healthier stuff then, and now I do.

Thank you for family jokes about Dr. Dad’s advice. It seemed whenever we struggled with a bodily ailment, a lump or rash or whatever, he’d say the same thing: “Put hot packs on it.” 

Thank you for the downfall of Louie (hematoma).

Thank you for neighbors to ride with and learn from.

Thank you for a winding, breathtaking backyard with countless paths.

Thank you for game-changing tips on technique.

Thank you for positive reinforcement building confidence.

Thank you for funny new ways to talk. I’m a masher—grinder?—aspiring to be less so. (Are you one too? Are you more of a spinner?)

Thank you for vegan pastries at the little coffee place at Calamigos Ranch, and for the sweet neighbor who works there.

Thank you for Brazil nuts as chewable supplements.

Thank you for SM’s loving guidance through the years.

Thank you for when I wasn’t talking to him a few years ago, and he kept calling and texting anyway. Finally, my stubbornness melted. Thank you for his forgiveness. Thank you for the ability to face him after that absence. Thank you for how easy he made it to reconcile—no questions; only acceptance. Thank you for his strength.

Thank you for the warmth of his daughter.

Thank you for courage to face what seems impossible, with grace.

Thank you for caregivers and healthcare providers.

Thank you many times over for “nothing is too wonderful to be true.” 

Thank you for all of us who send prayers and meditations to those fighting serious illness. Please join with wishes for well being!

Wishing you well, too <3

Every damage done in the past can be healed if you know how to touch deeply the present moment. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Thank you for damage from my past healing through greater presence.

Thank you for love from neighbors at the Vision Zero meeting.

Thank you for SB welcoming me at her gathering. Thank you for serious bear hugs and for the promise of blossoming friendships. Thank you for Seminole sisters.

Thank you for a free fake snickers bar at Joi Cafe with GC. Thank you for bike rides to Joi.

Thank you for catching up with SL (aka Stishey) over turmeric oatmilk concoctions. Thank you for her acceptance. Thank you for pals from the La Reina days.

Thank you for TNT sharing solid, detailed advice on how to interview contractors based on her years of experience with that sort of thing.

Thank you for the salty crunch of potato chips. 

Thank you for habits to increase wellbeing in the mind.

Thank you for the power of communication to enhance intimacy.

Thank you for ribbons in the sky.

Thank you for a stranger’s tube and time on Malibu Canyon.

Thank you for impromptu dinners with roomies. Thank you for shared laughs. Thank you for the smell of their wine with the taste of my pasta.

Thank you for letting it be alive. 

Thank you for dissolvable stitches.

Thank you for nippy walks.

Thank you for Verizon service reps.

Thank you for NM’s enthusiasm and gratitude making it a pleasure to work with her. Thank you for her vulnerability. Thank you for her healing.

Thank you for the YMCA with DS.

Thank you for cultivating love and forgiveness so close relationships actually are close. Some family and friends used to feel like famemies and frenemies. From giving and getting space, by setting boundaries, with intentional efforts, animosity morphed into loving kindness (mostly).

Thank you for drinking water all day long.

Thank you for a new dessert to try for the roomies.

Thank you if my living with them adds any little bit to their wellness and happiness.

Thank you for the chance to experiment with a different life, even if it’s not easy. This sort of thing can be fun. Thank you for new people to know and learn from. Thank you for each phase strengthening the next one. 

Thank you for changes to look forward to in the coming year.

Thank you for the beauty in every single living creature and the lessons in each experience.

Thank you for crossing paths with genuinely kind folks.

Thank you for mindfulness of daily stress and ease helping to free enjoyment.

Thank you for SM making it on the lung transplant list.

Thank you for GC becoming a U.S. citizen.

Thank you for Moms’ friends to fill their lives with meaning.

Thank you for DS’s son visiting three weekends in a row.

Thank you for a trip to ABQ over Christmas and a dog to love on there.

Thank you for Mondays chopping vegetables at RP’s.

Thank you for weekday bike rides on canyon roads (less traffic).

Thank you for humble pals and neighbors.

Thank you for Sister Joyful Insight. Thank you for the contagion of her positivity.

Thank you for dog moms.

Thank you for Meyer lemon cakes.

Thank you for a roomie repairing the handle to my hatchback.

Thank you for the REI guys who serviced my bike.

Thank you for a heron near miss on the way to the shop.

Thank you for kindness in return for basic human decency. 

Thank you for hope that despite evidence to the contrary, we and our world are healing.

Thank you for appreciation of apples as snacks.

Thank you for lighthearted jokes in the vegan community about that one question we all are asked sooner or later.

Thank you for corny pea humor.

Thank you for moms and the bird lady rescuing a little one with clipped wings in the cold.

Thank you for choices that seemed like sacrifices (for the environment, animals…). Later, their selfish benefits brought home the reality of interbeing.

Thank you for what appears to be the young woman who asked Thay a question in 2013 then becoming ordained at Deer Park Monastery in 2023. Thank you for genuine seekers.

Thank you for days of mindfulness at Deer Park.

Thank you for a few fun quotes from a latest read, Being Peace:

So we are friends, and our happiness depends on each other. According to that teaching I have to take care of myself, and you take care of yourself. That way we help each other. . . .  If I only say, “Don’t do this, you have to do that,” and I don’t take care of myself, I can do many wrong things, and that does not help. I have to take care of myself, knowing that I am responsible for your happiness, and if you do the same, everything will be alright. This is the Buddha’s teaching about perception, based on the principle of dependent co-arising.

Sometimes if we don’t do anything, we help more than if we do a lot. We call that nonaction. It is like the calm person on a small boat in a storm. That person does not have to do much, just to be himself and the situation can change. That is also an aspect of Dharmakaya: not talking, not teaching, just being.

Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge. You have to be able to transcend your knowledge the way people climb a ladder. If you are on the fifth step of a ladder and think that you are very high, there is no hope for you to climb to the sixth. The technique is to release. The Buddhist way of understanding is always letting go of our views and knowledge in order to transcend. This is the most important teaching. That is why I use the image of water to talk about understanding. Knowledge is solid; it blocks the way of understanding. Water can flow, can penetrate.

Thank you for awareness that I’ve been too serious lately. And life feels harder than it should, or at least more constrained. Could it be instability from the last year or two? It’s getting better.

Thank you for what inspires us and keeps us well.

Thank you for beings who uplift us.

Thank you for freedom to travel our higher path.

Thank you for courage to dwell in truth.

Thank you for faith to shed what doesn’t serve us opening space to move toward what does. 

Thank you for appreciation that we have limited energy, so it matters what we spend it on. 

Thank you for energy devoted to caring for our selves. 

Thank you for reverence we have for our inner callings.

Thank you for deep, honest, care lasting and expanding what’s real. It brightens our light. Maybe, too, if we keep ourselves transparent—if we clear what’s opaque in us—then more of that inner light radiates.

Thank you for the light in you. <3

Grace is spiritual WD-40, or water wings. The mystery of grace is that God loves Henry Kissinger and Vladimir Putin and me exactly as much as He or She loves your new grandchild. Go figure. — Anne Lamott

Thank you for the love we deserve no matter what.

Thank you for kindness being unattached.

Thank you for extended sabbaticals (like the one I took from work) because maybe there is something good about breaks that are longer than we think they should be. 

Thank you for the beauty of twisted oaks.

Thank you for free performing art shows by birdies in the sky. 

Thank you for values. It helps when I think of what mine are. Why do they matter? How does my passage through each day, little moments to bigger stuff, align with them?

Thank you for learning from the past. The coaching program is presenting challenges because it seems to transmit potentially harmful (and not based on solid evidence) information. Before, if I saw that, I’d run. Now, I’m thinking in shades of gray. 

Thank you for a few of the (many) pros of a vegan diet that’s mainly whole foods. Society may want us to believe these distinct possibilities aren’t available in one package: Enjoyment of a limitless and guilt-free abundance of starchy goodness. Freedom from calorie counting and portion restriction. Freedom from worries about consuming enough protein or too much gluten. Freedom from fears of becoming overweight. Lower chances of lifestyle-related illness.

Thank you for focus on the three T’s aiding my transition to a vegan diet. Satiety means staying full with plenty of whole plant foods. Novelty involves trying new options and different takes on familiar ones to keep meals exciting. And variety means regularly chomping a rainbow of diverse fruits, veggies, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. It’s beautiful. It’s abundant. It’s simple. And the health it contributes to feeds happiness.

Thank you for the lady who saw me ogling her Irish setter, Winston, and invited me to pet him. Thank you for his big soft head. 

Thank you for the oak leaf that blew into my hand walking away from the rental car place in TO after a long couple days.

Thank you for friends’ responses to Fatima so far—KG’s for instance: “I think of it as sort of a nothing burger.”

Thank you to the stranger who said I looked nice and cozy, when inside I felt like a slob. Thank you for noticing that to think of myself as a slob is less than kind.

Thank you for compliments from strangers (like when the man walked up to Sis at Lawry’s).

Thank you for HALT coming in handy this week. Luckily awareness of sleep deprivation, hungries, loneliness, etc, unveils the deception in thoughts. The truth is that my pessimistic narratives spring neither from reality nor from a vision of it I’d like to manifest. They’re a biased add-on. So telling myself, “You’re tired right now. Pause your mulling until you’ve had a good sleep,” helps to ride out the waves.

Thank you for sobriety clearing the fog that gathers in its absence.

Thank you for planning. We can plan for hiccups in advance. We can assume they’ll happen and decide beforehand how we’ll move forward once they do. 

Thank you for instead of simply giving up what’s unhealthy, filling the void with alternatives.

Thank you for when you and I and he and she have the courage to go the upright route.

Thank you for awkward conversations that increase intimacy. Thank you for bravery to start them. Thank you for practice to improve at them. I wish us all a flood of uncomfortable conversations throughout life, and the perspective to enjoy a chuckle at our fears.

Thank you for a morning walk past a fig tree and a lime tree by the Ventura County line. Thank you for eucalyptus out my bedroom window reminding me of Dad. Thank you for trees that feel like home.

Thank you for songs matching thoughts and responding to questions. 

Thank you for leaps of faith.

Thank you for roomies different than I’d imagined, in interesting ways. Thank you for painful pasts deepening their kindness. Thank you for their sons as lasting gifts from decades-long relationships that ultimately ran their course. Thank you for our unanimous appreciation of the home we share. Thank you for the woman who brought us together.

Thank you for the irony of going down in some respects to reach higher. Turning back may move me forward.

Thank you for integrity to give space to men and women battered by choices they don’t understand have been theirs. Thank you if that space helps them even a tiny bit. Thank you for visions of their solid, courageous, honest, empowered selves. Thank you for hope that everyone’s path will lead higher regardless of what that looks like or how long it takes.

Thank you for JL sending a pic of her veggie sandwich with hummus and alfalfa sprouts. It inspired me to munch more or those little powerhouses. Thank you for our virtuous cycle.

Thank you for monster burritos to make up for calorie deficits.

Thank you for future bike rides.

Thank you for descents becoming less scary. Thank you for all-out efforts down Mulholland twisties.

Thank you for friendly faces at the Old Place.

Thank you for a visit to homies at Seminole and for love from their doggles. I wonder if they realize how much they mean to me. (Maybe I should communicate that lol.)

Thank you for the choice to make the best of difficult anniversaries.

Thank you for when a future that seemed unimaginable instead leaves you grateful for the pain of the past. I’ll get there!

Thank you for insight into where different paths may lead based on how they’re traveled. For instance, I’ll do well to walk upright in the light with truth as a guide... (Does the journeying itself create the way?)

Thank you for thinking about thoughts (related to the HALT thing). A walk the other morning happened on an empty belly, with itunes piping sad music in my ears—angry women lambasting men who’d wronged them and such. So the mean reds flooded my heart. Back home, I had breakfast, brushed my teeth, and washed my face, only to feel happy vibes return. 

It reminded me of what it is to be kind. For me, it never works to rely on will or discipline or intent alone for that sort of thing. Nor do I feel good about kid-before-Christmas kindness (doing it for the presents). I try instead to arrange life so the good stuff just feels right to do because it is right.

And it does feel that way. Sometimes. Or it can, especially if I practice a certain way. Wellness is key. When fresh plant foods and nature and walks and rest balance my body, when right messages fill my ears and eyes—then the intention toward kindness sort of for its own sake flows into action like it’s going with gravity. Sure, wellness isn’t always possible. But persistently seeking to do a little bit better, to have a little more balance, to be ever more honest, usually is. A life filled with these positive micro-choices may elevate us. (I don’t know…)

Thank you for the randomness of repetitive gratitude lists. Thank you again for feeling doubt mixed with shame and posting anyway.

Thank you for the aim to choose better this week. Thank you for gentleness on ourselves when we’ve chosen lass than wisely. Thank you for learning from the past and trying our best. Thank you for rest. Wishing you decent bedtimes and deep sleep for strong days to come! <3

“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (quoted here).

Thank you for a paradoxical decline of regrets with age.

Thank you for tragic optimism and non-dual thinking for greater joy in life.

Thank you for the man at the arroyo justifying to a stranger his choice to let a friend off leash: “This is the only time he gets to be a dog.”

Thank you for more simple wisdom from Thich Nhat Hanh: “Mindfulness is connected with concentration and insight; if you practice mindfulness well, you get concentration and insight at the same time.”

And, “Understanding people is a miracle.” 

Thank you for reality being surreal.

Thank you for taking stock of the past few years or so. I lost a best friend. Gained a sister. Started a career path that’s based in love. Moved and moved and moved, and am moving. Acquired a home. Let it go. Found Home. Felt embraced by community. Same with family. Formed sustaining friendships. Opened eyes to the other side and its signs. Revamped outlook and look. Enjoyed heart-expanding adventures. Felt loved and hurt and loved and broken and whole. Practiced forgiveness. Enlarged acceptance…

Thank you for life’s beauty and brilliance.

Thank you for seemingly solid relationship advice tempered with intuition, tailored to fit, tested with critical thought.

Thank you for sister humor sprinkling days with joy.

Thank you for big sister encouragement easing the stress of another move.

Thank you for supportive moms easing it, too.

Thank you for a request on a morning walk answered by a white winged dove. It gave hope that maybe the healing I struggle with is possible.

Thank you for pups hiking with bandanas around their necks.

Thank you for the crispness of vibrant skies this time of year.

Thank you for accents from Oklahoman cousins reminding me of Dad’s drawl. Thank you for Sister’s ties with them linking us like a bridge.

Thank you for a warm chat with a caring program facilitator. 

Thank you for practice with others in the cohort despite the urge to escape. Thank you for when fear faced morphs into connection.

Thank you for cilantro in pineapple smoothies.

Thank you for tomorrow’s road trip to Cali and the opportunity to sing off key with no one hearing. Thank you for new friends who made the move possible. Even if snafus happen, thank you for steps in the direction called. 

It’s relative, but thank you for traveling somewhat light.

Thank you for seemingly good risks taken.

Thank you, if all goes well, for a family visit this winter.

Thank you for time seeing us through.

Thank you for all that inspires you. (May you immerse yourself in it.) Thank you for what brings you peace. (May you cherish it.) Thank you for awareness of your higher path. (May you cultivate it.)

Thank you for cheesiness.

Thank you for resting easy. Thank you for faith that pursuing what’s healthy “works” in unforeseen ways.

Wishing you well <3

Thank you for Sister teaching me om mani padme hum.

Thank you for unconditional acceptance from family and friends.

Thank you for a risk taken. Thank you for compassionate experts who minimized danger and maximized comfort.

Thank you for loved ones, even if far away.

Thank you for contentedness to travel solo knowing they’re with me.

Thank you for when we journey to places impacted by climate-related catastrophes, only because they further awaken us to the call for change. Thank you for all the shifts we are prioritizing then making, from the bottom up to the top down— from individuals, families and workplaces to corporations, governments…

Thank you for vegan Ethiopian takeout.

Thank you for rainy walks through Central Park.

Thank you for performance artists who earn their keep prancing on their tiptoes.

Thank you for the New York City Ballet.

Thank you for myriad ways to express creativity.

Thank you for transcendent experiences. (When have you felt a sense of awe lift you beyond yourself?)

Thank you for the meaning in stories we create about our paths, our lives, and our selves. Thank you for redemptive stories. Thank you for when we find the benefit in our history, make sense of it, or simply search for its significance.

Thank you for gems from coaching books that explore how we humans up our wellness. One nugget is that change is not a decision or event but a process. 

Thank you for Prochaska’s readiness for change model depicting the non-linear nature of progress. It’s a spiral that we cycle (and re-cycle) through.

Thank you for forgiveness of lapses and even total relapses. I’m nicer to myself when I accept twists on my path.

Thank you for Hebb’s law: “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” Thank you for neuronal plasticity.

Thank you for noticing in us what’s easy to overlook—our gradual progress, our unspoken strengths, our positive impacts and everyday superpowers…

Thank you for mellow vibes and lively ones. Thank you for joyfulness. Thank you for compassion. Thank you for every gift having its place.

Thank you for public policies in Singapore that lead to healthier (and happier) citizens. (At least that’s how it looked from the Blue Zones docuseries.)

Thank you for ancient foods like bread, beans, corn, squash… Thank you for rustic dishes like congee and minestrone.

Thank you for a realization that I won’t be bored or lonely as long as I’m happy to help those I view with respect. Accepting help may have similar benefits.

Thank you for the grapefruit-blood-orange flavor of dried golden berries.

Thank you for clean feelings from eating whole plant foods.

Thank you for hydration.

Thank you for the combo of energy without stimulants and calm without relaxers.

Thank you for another 3D dream of cuddling my little girl.

Thank you for Laura Lynne Jackson visiting SoCal in 2024.

Thank you for sister visits.

Thank you for a safe, happy east coast trip. 

Thank you for the elderly couple cuddling and smooching while they watched a movie on their laptop at the Penn Station Amtrak lounge. Wishing you someone special to smooch in your golden years, too!

Thank you for strangers waving at each other through train windows. 

Thank you again for a move back to SoCal that seems too soon. But I have faith it will work.

Thank you for everything home means to us.

Thank you for, despite challenges, so much going right, and for faith to sustain trust.

Thank you for the via character strengths survey. (Is this a repeat too?) It’s another of those free online surveys that tell you fun stuff about yourself.

Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for your unique character strengths. Thank you for what brings you joy. Thank you for the compassionate boundaries that protect your stability, your wellness. Thank you for resilience, tenacity, and faith to move you forward. Thank you for charitable honesty toward yourself, hand in hand with forgiveness, and how they nourish.

Thank you for visiting. I wish you everything good! <3

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started . . . and know the place for the first time. —T.S. Eliot

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you for growth from pushing outside one’s familiar bubble.

Thank you for acknowledgement of all our challenges paired with faith in the goodness of humanity.

Thank you for Washington DC Air BnB hosts raising my awareness of what’s going on in their home country of Tibet. Thank you for everything being impermanent. Thank you for when S may have the opportunity to see her family again.

Thank you for the friendliness of the lady who sold me Hippeas at the Amtrak Cafe.

Thank you for the heart melt when J’s boy asked, “Can I call you my little plushie?”

Thank you for J sharing with me her and Z’s epic love story from the beginning, and letting me in on more of her past than ever. Thank you for the trust to confide in her likewise. It’s funny how you can know someone most of your life and still learn about each other. Thank you for her quotes, borrowed and original. (Problems really are opportunities in disguise!) Thank you for her and Z’s kindness uplifting others. Thank you for their success.

Thank you for their boys’ personalities and character. Thank you for the atmosphere of respect they’ve grown up in. Thank you for Pippin’s smile. Thank you for the privilege to be included in an extraordinary family, to be part of a loving home. Thank you for daily life with them. Thank you for laughing until crying. Thank you for hugs in abundance.

Thank you for “weird” folks like us.

Thank you for traveling light.

Thank you for sailboats on the Hudson.

Thank you for subway cars packed with colors.

Thank you for rainy days that give birth to rainbows. Thank you for rainbows not discriminating. They pop up in country canyons, on tropical islands, in the heart of Brooklyn… Anywhere!

Thank you for Bed-Stuy hairdos showcasing a beauty some of us have struggled to accept in ourselves.

Thank you for embracing my home-free inner gypsy.

Thank you for a hiatus from makeup.

Thank you for confidence expanding.

Thank you for what the “push your flaws” quote tells me. Certain things about me I’ve struggled to appreciate. If they’re alterable and the change seems positive, then I’ve been going for it. Other stuff I’m growing to embrace as-is. I guess what’s worth changing and what we embrace are really up to each of us to figure out for ourselves. IDK…

I do wonder if some or most “flaws” we perceive in ourselves are simply parts that stand out because they’re different. Really they needn’t be considered flaws but valuable rarities that were just misinterpreted.

Thank you for CBT articulating errors in thinking to spur insights into self and others. Thank you for online resources. Thank you for empowerment through understanding.

Thank you for the positive lifestyles in Dan Buettner’s new Netflix series on the blue zones. I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far. (Okinawa’s now added to the dream travel list!)

Thank you for the comfort factor in the Big Apple. Walkability may play a role. Plus New Yorkers live so much in plain view that there’s less room for pretense. Interactions otherwise behind closed doors or in backyards happen right in the open. (I think disarming may be a good word for it.)

Thank you for the City’s “this is who I am” style. Thank you for its attitude. Thank you for hodgepodge cohesiveness when heaps of colorful dots meld into a single entity unlike anything else. 

To be one of the dots is an honor. I guess we all are tiny dots all the time if we really think about it. We’re little pieces of a big picture, and we sustain the whole alive in us.

Thank you for the invigoration of adventure and the joy of returning home. 

Thank you for accepting family. 

Thank you for Sister journeys toward peace. Thank you for the work we do expanding us. Thank you for love from the universe along the way.

Thank you (again) for a move to Cali in a few weeks offering an unmet future and new friends.

May faith in your vision of happiness—of wholeness—keep opening paths for you, too.

May our acknowledgement of strengths and appreciation for progress encourage their growth.

Thank you for you.

Be well <3

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.

Mother Earth is always forgiving. Mother Earth is always patient. Every time you come back to her, you get the nourishment and healing that you need. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Thank you for magical effects of time in nature.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for none of us ever losing or winning. Peace is the victor, and we all have it within us (or something like that).

Thank you for Thich Nhat Hanh’s short teaching videos that carry me through rough patches. There are ones on looking deeply into the nature of suffering, recognizing painful feelings, taking care of the habit energy of worrying, finding a simple way to heal, being protected by the energy of mindfulness, being alone…

Here’s an excerpt from A Simple Way to Heal:

When compassion is there, in your heart, you are no longer angry, because compassion is an antidote for anger. And without anger, you are more relaxed. You are more pleasant. You are more peaceful. And that will facilitate healing. And when you do not have anger, you can communicate with yourself much more easily. You can understand yourself much more easily. And you can communicate with the other person more easily.

Thank you for compassion immunizing from pain while opening doors to reconciliation.

Thank you for a fun dentist’s appointment. Thank you for healthier gums.

Thank you for deja vu jogging up Academy onto Lowell—it felt like rounding the corner from Sunset onto Hilgard back home.

Thank you for when iTunes shuffle played the corny song I’d requested for the end of a walk (Get Here).

Thank you for another request to the universe for clarity and support to be more honest with myself. Truth is always the brighter path. Truth that seems to hurt may instead be pain from untruth burning away. Truth keeps us well.

Thank you for not merely surviving onslaughts of waves but looking into them with curiosity, if possible, to explore patterns, to see where and how they originate, where they’re headed, how they’re navigated.

Thank you for smrti, samadhi, prajna.

Thank you for it occurring to me that most of us balk when advised to hold our pain in our hands. I used to think I was special because my pain seemed too much. If I let it pour into my hand, it might gush endlessly out of control.

Now I get how normal is the fear of holding one’s pain. Society encourages us to push it away. Yet suffering proliferates with denial; it dissolves with acceptance.

Thank you for phone chat doodles.

Thank you for The Adventure of Me.

Thank you for The Story of You.

Thank you for Meli-Fali.

Thank you for whistling in songs.

Thank you for a breakfast thought that not just my mouth but body and mind and feelings were eating, and the effects would last all day (or longer). Thank you for meals as whole body, long-term events.

Thank you for insights on my spinning in circles or spirals that may shed light. Distance from a less-than-healthy setting had healed me. (I’d reclaimed a maybe selfish hope.) That strength then gave a false sense of security. So, growing stronger thanks to distance ironically led me back to a less-than-safe space to see if this time it was doable. When I got back, though, wellness again took a hit. Now the aim is to understand expectations and patterns, with faith in healthier options yet to appear. And to be present.

Thank you for life here and now awesome as-is. Thank you for disappointments, dreams, and visions. Thank you for wonder in every moment.

Thank you for acceptance of focus on myself. Our selves deserve our attention! Care for mine makes me more solid for you.

Thank you for efforts to drop expectations and appreciate how far loved ones have traveled and where they are, to value their gifts, to root for them no matter what. 

Thank you for unconditional, unconventional friendships. 

Thank you for struggles that endear loved ones to our hearts.

Thank you for walks bookending days, listening to music, feeling connected to something great, enjoying nature, being alive...

Thank you for a sunset rainbow greeting me while headed out the door followed by a swollen moon shining through clouds on the way home.

Thank you for another travel adventure from early to late September. Thank you for friends who give it meaning. Thank you for the wellness program starting in a few days too. (So the next entry may be delayed.)

Thank you for sister love.

Thank you for those who let us know we’re valued. I value you!

Thank you for growing wellness.

Thank you for looking back to see how far we’ve come.

Thank you for bumpy progress (yours and mine).

Thank you for learning to accept.

Thank you for courage to dream and dreams coming true.

Thank you for adventures ahead <3

The way out is in. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Thank you for wind dancing with trees.

Thank you for the luxury of a hefty nap when regular sleep is disrupted.

Thank you for miracles of recovery. It may be foolish to expect them but is wise to believe in their possibility. 

Thank you for a pedestrian grooving to her headphones as she waited for the light to change on Tramway. Thank you for the gray-haired guy with a round belly sneaking an air drum riff on his walk up Spain.

Thank you for tostada night.

Thank you for dog-sitting Coco.

Thank you for boxer bounce.

Thank you for another white-winged dove sighting.

Thank you for learning to breathe.

Thank you for nothing really working when I sought to be less lonely. Then when I tried to be kinder, loneliness shrank without effort.

Thank you for the study and practice of love, leaning on historical figures, philosophers, spiritual leaders, and their traditions. How do you practice love in thoughts, speech, and actions everyday with living beings and the environment? Do you have a definition that spells out just what love means while distinguishing it from opposites? How does your love shine?

Thank you for an effort to be more honest with myself. I asked for guidance. Literally all I did was ask the empty space, the universe, to help. And it did! My hunch is that a sincere request is good for whatever ails us. It may involve a tough decision to make. Or an insecurity we’re running from. It could be as simple as “I’d like guidance to do the right thing.” (Who wouldn’t?)

Thank you for three rules for life from the “world’s happiest man.”

Thank you for how easy it is to eat healthy foods when junk food cravings (temporarily) disappear.

Thank you for song lyrics, “I’m not homeless. I’m home free.”

Thank you for natural thickeners like cornstarch, tapioca starch, flaxseeds, and chia seeds.

Thank you for the analgesic effect of Elliott Smith’s guitar playing.

Thank you for empathy. 

There’s a fear path and a love path (like Laura Lynne Jackson says).  At any crossroads, we have those options. I’m trying to practice choosing love.

Thank you for the best of our loved ones alive in our hearts. 

Thank you for understanding that when people behave in hurtful ways, it’s because they suffer (even more than the suffering they cause).

Thank you for the humility to admit our problems. Thank you for the open mindedness and courage to pursue outside help to look within.  

Thank you (again) for a tad more freedom to shed old stories of my low worth, etc. A lot of my suffering is a choice that masquerades as inevitable. Really I can let it go. Thank you for empowerment. 

Thank you for Thich Nhat Hanh explaining the word nirvana in one of his dharma talks. He said the original term described cold ashes left the morning after a fire for cooking. It surprised me that nirvana isn’t the flame. It’s when the flame is extinguished.

Thank you for everyone who meditates for peace and healing of those caught in flames. 

Thank you for a butterfly floating by a cyclist that supercharged both of our smiles.

Thank you for an autumn stay in Vermont with JL and company.

Thank you for little meditations from Plum Village that calm me to sleep. Lately I do this one:

Breathing in, I have arrived.

Breathing out, I am home.

Thank you for improvised meditations to make nice with the ickiness inside me.

Breathing in, I feel insecure.

Breathing out, I accept my insecurities.

Breathing in, I want to run. 

Breathing out, I embrace my restlessness.

Breathing in, I suffer.

Breathing out, I forgive…

Thank you for “Walk Quietly” playing on a random iTunes channel right after a walking meditation.

Thank you for an exciting hack from inter-being. An issue toward another can be addressed as an issue with myself, and vice versa. So, anger toward others magically dissipates by calming the anger toward myself. Learning to trust myself teaches me how and when to do so with you. Also, I forgive others healthily to improve at forgiving myself. I understand you to get clearer on me.

Thank you for happy waking from a dream of cuddles with my little gray beat box.

Thank you for markers of the universe’s benevolence, like truth and love—understanding, compassion, joy, kindness, equanimity…

Thank you for the shelter of trust in a greater benevolence. I hope you have it too.

Thank you for life not turning out my way. It’s something to appreciate. Personal attachments have a limited perspective, while the universe’s view is infinite. So if I go with the latter—aligning my thoughts, words, and acts with truth and kindness, regardless of outcomes—I’ll be better off.

Thank you a million times over for The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching as a salve for suffering. Reading it heals. Anger, also by Thich Nhat Hanh, has excellent practical advice to mend relationships. 

Thank you for a cognitive psychology seminar introducing me to the sunk-cost fallacy. (Maybe it fits with the Buddhist principle of [non]attachment.) Thank you for logic applied to living.

Thank you for a view of reason and intuition, mind and heart, as complementary.

Thank you for the five recollections.

Thank you for when I learn from experience.

Thank you for sobriety.

Thank you for therapy addressing mental health issues (like mine).

Thank you for allowing darkness to be our teacher. Then suffering builds solidity, sorrow feeds compassion, pain births joy, and loneliness strips us to receive connection.

Thank you for my iphone autocorrecting “losses of loved ones” into “kisses of loved ones.”

Thank you for how alive it felt to be home last month. Thank you for the opportunity to move back early, before the house is ready. Thank you for future roommates and a landlord whom I’m hopeful will become my friends, for the chance to try surfing again, to ride up and down Mulholland, to visit farmer’s markets, to garden, to live surrounded by loved ones (on two and four legs), to walk in the mountains, to advocate for the community, to enjoy sunshine and practice wellness with peeps passionate about that stuff too… Thank you for training in a wellness field. Thank you for new job prospects. Thank you for adventure that awaits.

Thank you for happiness when the focus is less on the love I get and more on the love I reflect.

Thank you for journeys out of suffering into happiness. If you are in the dark, I wish you light. If you are in the light, keep shining! <3

Waking up in the morning I smile. 

I have 24 brand new hours to live. 

I vow to live these hours deeply, 

I vow to learn to look at people around me with the eyes of compassion.

—Waking up gatha, shared by Thich Nhat Hanh

He also introduced a discussion about feeding depression and love: The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food.

Thank you for love being fed, for love growing. 

Thank you for dreams and visions of the future motivating today. 

Thank you for true messages sent from the heart.

Thank you for reflecting on all our strengths.

Thank you for when I finally understand that I’m still far from understanding.

Thank you for when we’ve helped each other to understand in the past and recently. Thank you for opportunities to do so in the future. 

Thank you for rainbows inside us waiting to bust out. 

Thank you for a song that encouraged me to let go of old stories. 

Thank you for when we try and listen to (look at?) the world like it’s a song. 

Thank you for a page in Helping People Change reminding me that if I continue to do what I’ve always done, I’ll continue to be who I’ve always been. To change, to grow, to feed love, I will do things differently.

Thank you for Thich Nhat Hanh writing in the book Anger of what a long commitment (6-8 years) it is to earn a university degree and that “perhaps there are other elements that are more important to your well-being and your happiness,” like improving relationships. He asked, “Do you have time for this?”

That spoke to me. I didn’t devote adequate time to important stuff while earning a degree and working in a related field. Society validated those long hours in academia, yet life is more meaningful than ever away from such busy-ness. Energy now aims toward being well, treating others better…

Thank you for A and J’s progress on the path of living tiny. Lives really do transform in vibrant ways.

Thank you for efforts to heal. 

Thank you for Dear Prudence, my high school sweetheart’s song for me.

Thank you for insight to see when communication is meant to gain from misunderstandings. Those who use such communication may be struggling. When we minimize the unhealthy stuff and keep practicing what we know with our hearts is healthy, when we keep looking deeply with honesty, calming our minds—persistently, diligently—we’ll find higher ground.

Thank you for when we accept our pain, because then we accept the lessons it has for us. Seeds I feel burned by and reflexively want to cast from my garden (like rejection) just take proper care to yield fruits of understanding and compassion.

Thank you for caring moms. Mine could tell I hadn’t been cooking or shopping (due to a migraine). So she batch cooked sweet potatoes. She roasted Yukon golds. And she whipped up oatmeal cookies and hummus. Thank you for her love. 

Thank you for neighbors and family there for each other after a thunderstorm caused a bit of damage at our ‘hood in the high desert.

Thank you for everyone who supports us through life.

Thank you for when I grasp that we all have the same capacities (seeds) within us. And one who hurts me is suffering too. I don’t know the whole story, either; some of my suffering may stem from imagined causes. 

Thank you for awareness that I can’t have anger for just one person. It generalizes. It carries over to me, to you. (Maybe that’s non-discrimination.) In the same way, it’s impossible to have love for just one person (not at all referring to polyamory, BTW). Love indulged in one area of life or toward one being makes its way elsewhere. Since the love we practice in a specific setting expands beyond it, I’d ideally go with that.

Thank you for strong lion hearts.

Thank you for the greater care with which I will give trust in the future. Ideally it will be earned through demonstrated integrity, openness, directness, consistency, sobriety, humility, honesty, awareness... Thank you for greater appreciation of those who are worthy of trust. Thank you for compassion for those who are less so. Thank you for self esteem building to know that I deserve safe relationships where gifts are appreciated and respect is reciprocated.

Thank you for sisters shaping us into better versions of ourselves. 

Thank you for an east coast trip in less than a month. It’s scary to think about (like with the last adventure) but exciting—especially the visits to longtime friends. Thank you for the move back to CA planned soon after the trip. Thank you for a new program starting in September that may open a career path.

Thank you for a future kitchen with big windows because meals are fun to prepare and eat in natural light.

Thank you for compostable phone cases and shoes made from corn.

Thank you for 100-year-old tortoise parents.

Thank you for every living being at Kindred Spirits Care Farm, where I’d love to visit one day.

Thank you for a gray dog with white paws on an evening stroll and a Peaches lookalike on another.

Thank you for memories of funny misunderstandings. The little girl me thought porcupine was “porky-pine,” orangutan was “orangutang,” and Haagen Dazs she pronounced “hogs and dogs.”

Thank you for the imagined smell of her perfume wafting images of Aunt Jaybird across my consciousness.

Thank you for butterfly fly-bys. While part of me knows they’re not personal, the closeness feels special. 

Thank you for the belief in the good (healthy, balanced, connected) things coming, even though I have little idea what they’ll look like anymore. I believe in them. May your belief in those good things draw more and more of them into your life <3

“To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world.” —Laura Lynne Jackson

Thank you for being the world to me.

Thank you for a deer sighting the first morning at Deer Park during a pause from walking meditation. 

Thank you for the opportunity to move back to CA this October. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s actually going to happen. Thank you for the new friends making it possible. Thank you for women who build each other up.

Thank you for freedom to have faced fears and broken out of my comfort zone at least for a bit. 

Thank you for the freshness of life beyond one’s bubble.

Thank you for the word “heal” being inside “health.” I guess it’s obvious, but to be healthy spurs healing. We heal when we focus on healthy little habits.

Thank you for a future neighbor met at the Old Place while waiting for a Lyft. Thank you for her vulnerability. Thank you for our hug. Thank you for her sharing contact info of a Native American healer.

Thank you for allies protecting each other and recovering together.

Thank you for “The bread in your hand is the body of the cosmos.” 

Thank you for interbeing.

Thank you for sweet, friendly tent neighbors at Clarity Hamlet.

Thank you for the birthday sign I requested, a yes or no answer, that came through in a very short time. The answer was yes, so I peeked into the place where I haven’t felt all that safe to visit lately. Checking seemed confusing but gave happiness even though I’m not really sure what it meant.

Thank you for communication and other practices of love that further understanding.

Thank you for chances taken. 

Thank you for seeing the good in another because it can show her the good in herself.

Thank you for when I take responsibility for my anger and suffering. 

Thank you for the power of our presence to aid a beloved’s healing and for the power of a beloved’s presence to heal us. 

Thank you for the best parts.

Thank you for the kindness of sisters and lay folks at Deer Park (Clarity Hamlet) boosting optimism. Thank you for their warmth that enlarges love. It’s not utopia but felt like a community of compassion. The stay did enhance clarity! I feel more peaceful and less stressed, and hope to carry this with me. It’s probably wise to return there over and over again…

Thank you for the existence of places like Plum Village and Deer Park, and for the generosity, dedication, and very hard work that makes them possible.

Thank you for when joyful gratitudes overflow.

Thank you for sights, smells, and feels of plants on evening hikes. 

Thank you for a break from cooking. 

Thank you for fresh greens from the sisters’ garden. 

Thank you for oversized bites of watermelon bursting with juice.

Thank you for sunrise meditations. 

Thank you for a clean, cozy tent.

Thank you for heartfelt conversations with strangers indistinguishable from friends. 

Thank you for the bracelet J gave me that will remind me of her. Thank you for her hugs and company. Thank you for her cheerfulness brightening up everyone around her. Thank you for her time off to care for herself.

Thank you for environments safe from what otherwise shuts us off or makes us feel small, for environments where acceptance thrives. 

Thank you for time to read on a shady swing with lizards and flies and bees and birds and oaks and poppies and cacti…

Thank you for insights into relationships from Sister D’s Q&A session, and for those daring to share their life traumas to benefit us all. 

Sister D seems right, however sappy it may sound: to be in a solid relationship it’s important first to be a soulmate to one’s self. To deal with my own issues builds my capacity to love others.

Thank you for Sister Popsicle approaching me one morning at the start of walking meditation. She held out her hand with a friendly request, “Walk, together.” So I took it and we headed down the hill. Thank you for her warmth. 

Thank you for hugs from sweet little R. Thank you for little girl voices that sound like a song whatever they say.

Thank you for udon soup for dinner. 

Thank you for cold bean soup for dessert.

Thank you for building better lives based on practices like mindfulness. 

Thank you for Sister D sharing that mindfulness is like a bird (is that right?)—its two wings are stopping and looking deeply.

Thank you for better options to nurture kind regard. When I used to drink, just as the alcohol seeped in, anger and fear dissolved, and I’d feel so loving. I wanted to hug the whole world. 

It wasn’t a real feeling, of course. It didn’t uproot negativity in me. It only inhibited my darkness for a moment (and made it worse when I sobered). 

The good thing is that it’s possible to achieve that loving feeling without chemicals. I think we can work so it’s actually a genuine kindness that lasts. It’s like Plum Village wisdom—the Buddha in me can learn to recognize and bow to the Buddha in you. 

We all have the seeds of enlightenment in us. Seeing each other like that melts our negativity and, even when we’re not tipsy, we can feel love for the world’s goodness and promise despite its imperfections. 

Thank you for exposure to harsh realities on the trip home. Pretty unhealthy stuff happened on the bus, metro, and train, all in succession. Yet humanity stood amidst it. “Criminals” involved in scary acts, clearly suffering, also displayed human decency.

Thank you for SHM giving me Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Anger. Thank you for its advice on healing relationships of all kinds.

One recommendation is to listen deeply. And according to the book, “Everything is possible when the door of communication is open.” Expressing the desire to make peace with the other matters, too. But first comes making peace with one’s self. “Helping yourself is the first condition for helping the other.”

Thank you for another read during the retreat. At Home in the World especially resonated because “home” has seemed missing from my life. I guess it’s true, “Home is not something to hope for, but to cultivate.” 

Mindful sitting, breathing, eating, and walking are all ways to touch peace and heal. Mind and body together in the present sort of bring us home wherever we happen to be.  We “find ways to bring our body and mind back to the present moment so we can touch what is refreshing, healing, and wondrous within us and around us.” Then life starts to fall in place with less effort.

Believing this is helping me to cultivate home. (It’s not an empty belief—my faith bears real fruits that sustain efforts.)

Thank you for sunset walks in the ABQ foothills enjoying birds and sky, feeling the breeze and walking tall to happy music. 

I hope your days have special moments like that. I hope you’re absorbing nature around you and connecting with it inside you. 

Thank you for steps forward on the path of love.

If you’re lost, if you keep going in circles, seek trustworthy guides for help. Therapy was a huge blessing for me when I struggled with depression. Twelve-step programs are another option that transforms so, so many who otherwise have been powerless against their dependencies. And places like Deer Park are within reach.

Thank you for advice to self when I haven’t given the space asked of me and became involved in a situation that I should have steered clear of: Love yourself (I guess it’s like Sister D’s advice). Sometimes the best way to love another is to give space indefinitely and focus on one’s own well-being.

Thank you for healthy doors that have room to open when less-than-healthy ones close.

Thank you for Dad’s 100th (August 3, 2023). Happy Birthday, Papa! I love you. (If your dad is still around, please cherish him!)

P.S. Hero!!!!! :D

Nobody lives a small life.

No one is forgotten by the universe.

All of us can greatly brighten the world.

—Laura Lynne Jackson, The Light Between Us

Thank you for bird wings flapping against the bedside window as I typed that. 

Thank you for a peaceful place to stay.

Thank you for the opportunity to connect with carriers of light.

Thank you for fresh cherries on sale.

Thank you for a fireworks display on an evening walk.

Thank you for concoctions high-speed blenders make possible.

Thank you for peace.

Thank you for graffiti landscapes on bellies of train cars.

Thank you for dogs at play in yards at sunrise.

Thank you for the generosity of strangers. 

Thank you for the passenger next to me who offered snacks, then a butterfinger, and finally a Bud Light.

Thank you for cars full of travelers soundly asleep.

Thank you for sidewalk snail trails.

Thank you for eucalyptus-scented breeze.

Thank you for dark, prickly scrub oak leaves. Thank you for the scrub jay joining K and me in her yard.

Thank you for hummingbird nests stretching to accommodate their families.

Thank you for the first in-person meeting together with AV and RP (and Audrey). Thank you for future friendships.

Thank you for plant-based restaurant options.

Thank you for quality time with beautiful Bruin ladies AH and KB in the city, for their non-judgmental acceptance, for our talks and walks and laughs together. 

Thank you for friends who, just by listening to anger or darkness, add light.

Thank you for BJ Fogg writing in Tiny Habits: One of my personal themes for the last year has been to “strengthen others in all my interactions.”

Thank you for the gentle sounds of voices.

Thank you for the beauty of eyes.

Thank you for the warmth of hugs.

Thank you again for life changes in the past few years. Worries aren’t always so searing. Relationships feel connected. Respected others treat me as worthy of friendship when I don’t feel that way.

Thank you for sauna sessions promoting bliss. Thank you for the dream of a sauna at the new place to share with neighbors.

Thank you for loving family in NM and CA.

Thank you for a white fluffy dog tail waving out the window of a pickup truck.

Thank you for the Fatal Conveniences author speaking on the Rich Roll Podcast.

Thank you for bamboo dental floss breaking less when it’s wet before use.

Thank you for family, friends, neighbors, and strangers—and their pups and kitties.

Thank you for parrots and squirrels sharing breakfast outside the seminole clubhouse.

Thank you for life thriving in KG’s garden.

Thank you for Fairy the Pomeranian at the vegan sushi place.

Thank you for the fulfillment of connecting when there’s no big agenda.

Thank you for BH’s wit, generosity, and vegan BBQ skills.

Thank you for a morning with BO and Hero at Peter Strauss Ranch.

Thank you for folks enjoying summertime. Hopefully that includes you!

Thank you for a short and sweet meeting with SH. Thank you for her kind attentiveness.

Thank you for JM looking me in the eyes and saying, “You don’t have to make yourself small. You’re here. That means this is where you’re supposed to be.” Thank you for her hubs, SHM, sharing about non-attachment. Thank you for his compassion toward Samson. Thank you for everyone who saw Samson home.

Thank you for garden bounties.

Thank you for injuries healing.

Thank you for emotions healing.

Thank you for tinctures of time.

Thank you for acceptance, trust, and transformation.

Thank you for everyday love. Sending it your way <3 

Thank you for AV texting me from Seminole that it was such a beautiful day, she felt like she was on vacation. Then she wrote, “You’re going to love it here.” Her happiness made me happy. Her assurance revived optimism. 

Thank you for time away from home being temporary, so I may as well enjoy it here. 

Thank you for Pink Moon today under a pink sky and then for Purple Haze a few songs later just as the pink clouds darkened. Do you ever feel like songs on shuffle are trying to tell you something? It reminds me of rolling down the driveway, car loaded up Woolsey morning, when the shuffle landed on Wander (Trevor Hall).

Thank you for sumo buns (the kind worn on the head).

Thank you for dogpile therapy.

Thank you for lighthearted giggles.

Thank you for coincidences that keep popping up. 

Thank you for discovering that a (not-so-popular?) French movie I’ve been wanting to watch is available on a platform I hadn’t thought to check.

Thank you for the grasshoppers that bumped my leg and arm on the way into Smith’s with a box of bags to recycle.

Thank you for thoughts on where I’ll be this time next week. Maybe in a big reclining seat shifting to a comfier position. Or settled in and reading a new-used Laura Lynne Jackson book. Daydreaming (or nightdreaming). Wiping “long day” oil from my forehead. Looking at reflections in the window…Washing down Frooze Balls with coconut water…Trying to pee with zero direct toilet contact…IDK…Some of it might be kind of fun.

Thank you for a deer park birthday.

Thank you for another humbling health blip to highlight the importance of hydration and electrolytes. 

Thank you for how rewarding it can feel to look into people’s eyes. 

Thank you for the colors in neighbor R’s paintings of fruit, a volcano, and the border at Tijuana, especially. Thank you for garage art and artists.

Thank you for caring neighbors.

Thank you for caring first responders. 

Thank you for alfalfa sprout mustaches. 

Thank you for a dream that helped me to explore a fear. It had to do with what an Elliott Smith song described: “I’m waiting for something that’s not coming.” Some of us may be waiting for something that may not be coming. But we also are not waiting for other things that are coming, beautiful gifts we couldn’t have imagined or wouldn’t have thought to ask for. 

Thank you for unexpected life directions.

Thank you for all that happens “in the meantime,” when we’re caught up waiting or hoping.

Thank you for gifts without price tags exchanged.

Thank you for NB and GQ—for NB’s gifts to GQ.

Thank you for Nat King Cole songs.

Thank you for wonderful happenings, and even challenges, that bring out better versions of ourselves.  

Thank you for light, chipper conversation while painting the little library with M and B.

Thank you for everyday celebrations of itty bitty victories. The thought came from reading Tiny Habits. I don’t read that kind of thing much lately but it’s on the reading list (along with Transforming Trauma) for the program that starts this September. And it is packed with insights that resonate with experience.

For instance, the author shares that if you learn one thing from his book, he hopes it is to celebrate your tiny successes: “This one small shift in your life can have a massive impact even when you feel there is no way up or out of your situation.” So let’s celebrate our tiny successes throughout each day! 

Later in the book, he says that “success leads to success”—no matter the size of success you start with. The trick when in a bind is to aim tiny. Aim for the smallest, most doable achievements. And celebrate them—even if it’s just with silent congrats to self. Those little victories will grow. They’ll multiply.

Thank you for unexpected joys and tiny successes. I wish them on you in abundance <3

Thank you for measuring cups and spoons. 

Thank you for the story about the three laughing monks. 

Thank you for the joy of writing with a pointy tipped pencil. 

Thank you for juicy, crisp apple bites.

Thank you for motorcycle toots.

Thank you for a Sister pep talk on an evening walk to the market for chocolate and sparkling water.

Thank you for Sister encouragement calming nerves before a presentation.

Thank you for charitable audiences. Thank you for neighbor M, who would fit in with folks at the park.

Thank you for SHM’s perspectives on life. Thank you for the joy his family brings him. Thank you for his friendship. Thank you for his teaching face yoga (smiling) to serious crowds.

Thank you to the presence accompanying our thoughts and dreams. Thank you for invisible guides.

Thank you for vibrant, hopeful inner worlds. 

Thank you for advice to self: Return again and again to positivity. Remember that’s different from denying truth. It’s an attitude toward the good and the bad. Positivity approaches apocalyptic challenges (like the climate crisis) with hope propped up by action. 

Thank you for a dad who valued thinking before talking. I’ve been realizing the importance of choosing words with care prior to voicing them. Also what to say and what to leave out deserve forethought. I’d like to be skillful in those areas.

Thank you for positive spins on not making a peep—noble silence, thunderous silence…

Thank you for the big rock candy mountains.

Thank you for reminders to let go of expectations. (That’s the ideal.)

Thank you for expectations shaping attitudes. Freedom from expectations may up gratitude for others and their gifts. 

Thank you for, “We are not here to become what we think we should be. We are here to be open to what’s possible.” - Laura Carney

Thank you for a change of scenery in a couple weeks.

Thank you for opportunities to meet new friends and reconnect with old ones.

Thank you for sleeping under the stars.

Thank you for Peaches supplying me with daily laughter. Thank you for our happy moments. They (and she) nourished compassion. I hope to remember she’s with me still. 

Thank you for all our doggy angels here on earth.

Thank you for a reminder that the beings in our life are our life. 

Thank you for a grown bison running with a baby one on the field by the road, alongside my bike and me.

Thank you for empty planters discarded on the shoulder reminding me of KG (the plant goddess).

Thank you for friends BT has made since the move to NM. 

Thank you for Sisters who practice joyfulness and carry us through challenges. 

Thank you for his and hers garden beds. 

Thank you for RP’s positive attitude. Thank you for her resilience in the face of a setback. Thank you for her wisdom in wellness. 

Thank you for women, like AV, working in male dominated fields (and vice versa).

Thank you for chilled oranges in the mornings.

Thank you for Osea scents.

Thank you for couples who seem to respect each other and enjoy one another’s company. Thank you for the high concentration of those couples at Seminole.

Thank you for L and R’s evenings relaxing in the golf cart by what used to be the lake (now it’s the meadow), the volume in their cups receding with the sun, pouring ease into a decades-long conversation that’s as fresh as the air by the meadow at sunset. (Sorry about all this cheesiness.) 

Thank you for empowering relationships.

Thank you for a chat with BW lifting my spirits. Thank you for her wellness. Thank you for Riley, Echo, and Cam getting along. 

Thank you for zen retreats. 

Thank you to James Gordon for sharing concrete ways to recover from our pasts: “I think of Gratitude and Forgiveness as subtle but strong currents that can pull us through and beyond the whirlpools of remembered rage and relentless distress that trauma may have left in its wake” - James S Gordon, MD (in a snippet from Transforming Trauma)

Here’s another one: “I know that just about everything important I’ve done in my adult life”—he mentions falling in love, caring for children, admitting to causing hurt, and exploring ways to help others—that it all “seemed at first risky and foolish, and was often enough dismissed by others as outrageous or even deluded.” But when, instead of second-guessing himself, he did the seemingly foolish thing that called him, he felt at ease.

Thank you for wisdom in foolishness.

Thank you for salt.

Thank you for strolls at dusk.

Thank you for listening to One of These Things First, marveling at how distinct sounds meld to form music.

Thank you for a life made better by the love it’s given. Thank you for taller stances in those who’ve felt appreciated. 

Thank you for when we perceive ourselves through the eyes of someone who sees good that we’re blind to.

Thank you for the good in us all.

Thank you for our restful nights and healthy days. <3

“Have the courage to let yourself get bored. Cross that point where usually you would seek out meaningless stimulation. And then watch in real time new potentials for your life open up.” - Abdullah Zeinab

Maybe taking steps and eating breakfast are some of the potentially boring things, and what opens from the experience of them is healing.

Thank you for us being different or weird (if it’s genuine) and for loving weirdly.

Thank you for gains in strength.

Thank you for progress building on progress.

Thank you for setbacks learned from, so they’re part of the progress, too.

Thank you for this article from a few years back on living a healthy and happy life.

Thank you for porch swings that can’t buy happiness but may be a perch for it to rest on.

Thank you for a Sis inspiring me with an introduction to Tonglen and the ways she’s practiced.

Thank you for, “You are a flower in the garden of humanity.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Thank you for the shirt that said, “We rise by lifting each other up.” Thank you for the smile on the woman who wore it. (Maybe our smiles lifted each other up!)

Thank you for blinders horses wear. Although it seems less than ideal for them, it’s a lesson. Distractions out of sight help us focus on the path to a healthier future.

Thank you for letting go of regrets to free head space for envisioning wellness and connecting with the present.

Thank you for guessing the time before checking it. Do you do that? It might hone intuition. Dad would play those sorts of games. He’d have us guess the temperature of the room before seeing the thermostat or the bill amount before the server brought it.

Thank you for monsoon season here in NM. Thank you for cracks of thunder. Thank you for stormy walks.

Thank you for lists when there’s more to do than my brain can keep track of. 

Thank you for the last move to LA. Thank you for neighbors who strengthened me. Even small kindnesses matter. Warm greetings, asking how someone is, offering little tips and advice can change a life.

Thank you for recovering from hurts as a way to show forgiveness. 

Thank you for trail runs supercharging smiles. What gives your smiles a charge? Is it running? Biking? Painting? Gardening? Camping? Playdates? Surfing? Baking? Hugs? Dance? Yoga? Hikes?… 

Thank you for a white winged dove near miss outside the house while chatting with the bird rescue lady.

Thank you for the staying power of kindness. (Mine stumbles and gets back up.)

Thank you for greyhounds on the Tramway walking path.

Thank you for the booty bounce of the mini Australian shepherd mix trotting off leash between two ladies, also trotting, on the sidewalk near the high desert open space.

Thank you for meditating in bed. Thank you for patterns of light and dark that spring to life behind closed eyelids. 

Thank you for screen time traded in for analog entertainment.

Thank you for efforts at assuming responsibility for my emotions and life. Good will come to others if I’m at my best.

Thank you for genuine apologies spoken and unspoken (lived). 

Thank you for greasy French fry cravings.

Thank you for dreams that foreshadow little events in the day ahead because they give a feeling that life is more than what shows on the outside.

Thank you for what another angry slip up has to teach me. Do you ever feel that you’ve tried so hard for so long and still are miles away from getting things right? I guess if you can relate, then our humanity connects us.

Thank you (again) for this clip on forgiveness and the power of aspiration. Thank you for beacons who shine light. Thank you for Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thank you for awareness that we’re surrounded with a love we may not always see. It is there! May we open to the wonders of love around us.

Thank you for when I am able to remain calm and reflect even a speck of the love the universe gives. I hope you feel calm and reflect love, too.

Thank you for all of us learning.

Thank you for your wellness.

Thank you for the joyful moments that brighten your days.

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.

Thank you for Nick Drake’s Road.

Thank you for sing-alongs on bike rides not caring who hears.

Thank you for the creamy-hued (but green) Crosstrek with CA plates on Tramway bringing happy memories.

Thank you for focus lately on elevating energy, practicing kindness (trying to listen better), and surrendering. Elevating each other’s positive energy seems like a healthy way to approach relationships. 

Thank you for the mood lift from a night gathering pics online for a vision board type thingy.

Thank you for joyful, loving, resilient, mutually respectful and adoring couples who overcome odds to show the world what’s possible. 

Thank you for cloud shadows speckling the city landscape viewed from the foothills.

Thank you for a surreal walk right before a thunderstorm, with the most vivid patchwork of massive dark and bright clouds you could imagine.

Thank you for dancer’s pose.

Thank you for once-in-a-while early mornings to get centered and nourished before the day starts.

Thank you for bedtimes conducive to early mornings. Thank you for freedom from caffeine aiding early bedtimes.

Thank you for what a recent vegan cupcake taught me about addiction.

Thank you for the mundane thrills of life. Granola and oat bars for snacking on adventures. New recipes for experimenting. Presentations to give. Books to read and classes to take. Friends with pups to visit. Walks to the store for chocolate bars and such. Birds flying all around. Their songs sweetening the air. Homes to build. Gardens to grow. Dreams to mull. Family and friends to practice loving and mess up and learn from and practice some more.

Thank you for the success and inspiration of BO’s latest endeavors.

Thank you for Everybody Loves the Sunshine.

Thank you for the bird rehab lady in ABQ and our chat today on animal rescues, vegan food, and the nestling goldfinch she’s nursing to health.

Thank you again for memento mori. One day my options will close down, maybe gradually or with a bang. Enjoying moments now with the aim of living well may up the chance that I’ll accept however and whenever those options narrow.

Thank you for the magic that surfaces when we believe in possibilities.

Thank you for Mother’s Day with Moms, TNT, JC, and September on their new deck. Thank you for harmony and laughter. Thank you for no dearth of poop jokes. Thank you for their new fruit trees and more plants to come, and for the opportunity to be a sous gardener.

Thank you for a dream of angels resembling birds if birds were jellyfish, diving from the night sky into a cold dark sea.

Thank you for dreams as a compass to guide our path.

Thank you for the new mindfulness center at Harvard and the donor who funded it. (Think of the contributions headed our way!)

Thank you for a high school boyfriend who used to be obsessed with the Beatles and for the name he called me that I didn’t much like back then.

Thank you for successful thrifting to prep for Paradise. It was more fun than expected rummaging through five-dollar shirts and six-dollar pants at St Vincent de Paul. Plus the only song that played there reminded me of my little girl.

(Here comes a long one…) Thank you for a tool, from Laura Lynne Jackson, to relieve stress-induced procrastination: reassurance that we don’t act solo. It’s related to surrender. When I think I have to solve a problem or do something hard, the outcome appears to rest on me alone. I’m usurping control; the pressure can be paralyzing.

To surrender, on the contrary, is to accept that nothing really rests on my shoulders. I’m not doing what I do on my own. I don’t have to (nor can I) figure it all out. Ideas are one example. We can work like crazy to strengthen our minds and increase knowledge. But ultimately, new ideas—creative connections and insights—float down to us.

So it helps to remember that I’m not solely responsible to solve problems or accomplish goals. I always have help. Or the universe, nature, or whatever, is the doing and I am merely the help, the channel toward a greater end. The resulting ease of mind ironically welcomes solutions. It leads to work accomplished in creative ways. 

Related to that, thank you again for Thich Nhat Hanh on inter-being. We’re made of our ancestors, our environments, our social circles, everything we consume… We are more than individuals. Thus we’re never alone. And we never act on our own. Our doing is inter-doing. What we accomplish with love is the universe’s love manifesting through us. 

Thank you for this snippet from Al Ghazali’s Path to Sufism (Translated by R.J. McCarthy, S.J.). Feel free to replace the God talk with whatever works for you (for me, it’s the universe or nature):

“I believe with a faith as certain as direct vision that there is no might for me and no power save in God, the Sublime, the Mighty; and that it was not I who moved, but He moved me; and that I did not act, but He acted through me.”

And for his prayer: “I ask Him, then, to reform me first, then to use me as an instrument of reform; to guide me, then to use me as an instrument of guidance; to show me the true as true, and to grant me the grace to follow it; and to show me the false as false, and to grant me the grace to eschew it!”

Thank you for another post. Despite worries, I feel freer. It’s a bonus if you gain from it.

Thank you for being there.

Thank you for your dreams. 

Thank you for your wellness and healing.

Thank you for transformation through love happening all around.

When we make decisions that are love-based and not fear-based we move on to a higher life path. - Laura Lynne Jackson

Thank you for her further explaination that when we’re torn and can’t tell the difference between the two, “that’s when the Other Side tries to send us signs.” (I’d like to be more open for them.)

There’s so much more to be gained from her second book. Like the life tips. “The way we elevate our lives is by elevating our energy.” She explains that the energy we give off can have a profound impact on others’ lives as well as our own. Elevation often happens through tiny kindnesses in smiles, words, waves…

To read about positive energy after a cheerful bike ride was especially impactful. It was such a perfect day that I literally couldn’t stop smiling, and happy faces on the path reflected that joy. (This is an especially important lesson for when I feel less than happy.)

Another positive from the book was the discussion of art—movies, plays, music, etc—shifting energy. What I appreciated is that these things needn’t be an escape from life. They can help us instead to approach better versions of ourselves.

Thank you for reminders to myself that, despite how it may feel, I’m in charge of my life and day. Well, no, that’s not totally right. I mean, we don’t have control over tons of aspects of life. Yet we do. We have choices. The choice to surrender is one sort of funny example of exercising control, I guess. IDK…

Thank you for smiles that make people happy.

Thank you for the chewy addictiveness of dried goji berries. 

Thank you for returns to what gave us joy as children. I was obsessed with reading, but it wasn’t really a craving for knowledge. It was an enjoyment of discovering and entering different spaces. Later, appreciation grew for conversations across time, messages from the past, indirect-direct contact with noteworthy figures. For instance, I can sit on the couch with Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and journey back around two thousand years, listening to intimate thoughts he graciously noted in a journal that fortuitously withstood time. Then I can respond, even if it’s just by discussing his writings with you. When you join the discussion, our two-thousand-year conversation expands, and that feels magical. 

Thank you for things that gave you joy as a child. I hope you still take pleasure in them.

Thank you for porch swings.

Thank you for svadhyaya.

Thank you for the study of treasures found in dreams and their unexpected nuance. For instance, recently I asked about a weighty decision—Is X or Y the right thing to do? Examining the dream’s reply taught me that both choices involve painful sacrifice. Neither will feel totally right. It further cautioned me to watch out for potential shortcomings encouraged by the choice I feel pulled toward.  

Basically, it gently warned that even the higher of two possible paths won’t be totally smooth—that higher path, too, holds peril. It’s like how “success” on some measure opens our egos and tempts arrogance. And achieving power may leave our morals vulnerable. Such gentle warnings raise awareness so we stay true to our better selves.

Thank you for dreams, on first glance absurd and random, holding real significance. It’s eye-opening to write them out, re-read the accounts, and strive for alternative understandings. 

Oh, studying dreams also showed me how initial interpretations have been outcroppings of guilt or shame. You know how, when you feel guilty about something, you may interpret others’ response to you in light of that guilt? What I mean is that they may seem angry at you when they’re not. The faulty interpretation of anger is sort of like projecting the guilt inside of you outward. You feel that you deserve anger, so that’s what you see coming at you from others (regardless of whether it’s actually there). 

Well, I had been projecting similarly onto my dreams. I thought they were giving harsh admonishments—I thought they were castigating me. But new interpretations came out after deeper thought. I saw my guilt and shame were interpreting the dreams as angry, at first. So I told myself that dreams are loving messages. I’m loved. My dreams are there to guide with love. Then entirely new interpretations became clear.

Thank you for when the wind and clouds and air converge in a unique New Mexico way to convey that a storm is coming. Thank you for feelings unique to places. Thank you for expanded views when we’re privileged to venture from familiar bubbles. Thank you for wonder in newness.

Thank you for anticipation of travel and unknown adventures. To kick off summer is a trip to Paradise followed by visits to loved ones up north. Then it’s down to see friends and future neighbors around LA, and finally on to Escondido for camping and meditation. To wrap up summer is an east coast trip—leaf peeping, time with the beautiful JL and her precious fellas… (There’s so much to do lately. I’ll try to keep posting. Wish me luck with it.) Wishing you wellness and adventure this summer, too!

Thank you for trains. Thank you for efforts to travel somewhat responsibly. Thank you for slow options.

Thank you again for a promising career pursuit this fall and the enthusiastic feedback on it from friends and family. 

Thank you for RP’s guidance toward new opportunities. Thank you for her mentorship. 

Thank you for gradual acceptance that maybe it’s okay to have what we “want.” Some wants aren’t the unhealthy attachment kind, they’re the pulls we feel to go where our hearts lead, where the universe seems to point. I think as our wellness improves, our individual wants and those healthy tugs from the universe fall more in line with each other. (I hope so.)

Thank you for new kitchen adventures.

Thank you for frozen granola bars, and thawed ones.

Thank you for a sunny bike ride, no jacket required, low wind, plenty of energy and multiple flybys—a white winged duck and dove and butterflies—to remind me of sweet Peach.

Thank you for love lessons from her (and other doggos). She taught that how we greet our loved ones makes a huge difference in their lives. Think about the joy of a dog’s greeting. It’s no small thing. The love our dogs give makes the world happier. 

Thank you for everything you’re grateful for.

Thank you for the transformation gratitude practice brings.

May your list keep growing <3