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Gratitude Lounge

Welcome! We are glad you are here. This is an open space where everyone belongs, and everyone is welcome. Please introduce yourself as you feel comfortable and join in sharing your experience of grateful living. To get started you might reflect upon questions such as these: What am I grateful for? What is grateful living inspiring me to do? What are some blessings in my life (including ones in disguise)? How am I being supported right now? What connects me to wonder, awe, or a sense of the sacred? You are welcome to include images and links for videos to illustrate your reflections.

  • Mike S
    This poem by Wendell Berry is very much like the Mary Oliver poem I posted. It’s titled wild things. When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the...

    This poem by Wendell Berry is very much like the Mary Oliver poem I posted. It’s titled wild things.

    When despair for the world grows in me
    and I wake in the night at the least sound
    in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
    I go and lie down where the wood drake
    rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
    I come into the peace of wild things
    who do not tax their lives with forethought
    of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
    And I feel above me the day-blind stars
    waiting with their light. For a time
    I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

    Read More
  • Drew Blanton

    I’ll start going to Thrive Upstate on Monday next week. I just found that out today.

  • Mike S

    Here’s another watercolor from my cousin Hannah. Much of her work reflects the kind of landscapes found in New Hampshire where her family and mine had second homes where we spent summers mostly, but also year-around.

    • Holly in Ohio

      Lovely painting! My brother lives in NH, and I have been there in winter. It is very like that. 😃

    • Anna

      Mike, it looks like a fairytale landscape, and that’s why I love it … when I was a kid, I often got lost in children’s book drawings!

  • Holly in Ohio

    Today I am thankful for the many different chapters of life, a childhood, teen years, different jobs, family, different homes. Each chapter is almost a different life and a new chance to enjoy love and happiness.

  • Mike S
    One of my favorite poems by Mary Oliver. You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in...

    One of my favorite poems by Mary Oliver.

    You do not have to be good.
    You do not have to walk on your knees
    for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
    You only have to let the soft animal of your body
    love what it loves.
    Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
    Meanwhile the world goes on.
    Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
    are moving across the landscapes,
    over the prairies and the deep trees,
    the mountains and the rivers.
    Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
    are heading home again.
    Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
    the world offers itself to your imagination,
    calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
    over and over announcing your place
    in the family of things.

    Read More
    • Mica

      That one’s a winner, isn’t it, Mike? Many thanks 🙏 🤩 😍 😊 ☺️
      I had forgotten the ‘clear pebbles of the rain’

    • Ose

      Thank you, dear Mike, for posting this beautiful poem. So touching.

    • Pilgrim

      One of my favorites, too, Mike. Thanks for posting it. She was quite something, Mary Oliver!

  • Holly in Ohio

    I’m taking suggestions for names for this little guy, who I found and photographed in my garden on the farm last year. I wrote about him in our daily question section, if you would like to know why he is significant to me.

    • Palm

      Holly, this is amazing, your pictures look so lush, it’s inspiring to think that this was depleted land not long ago… I was on the question of the day and came here to see her, my first though was Queen Toad because I read a book by Jill Bolte where she tells how she gave this name to the right part of her brain, the one that can connect us with the all encompassing universe.

      • Holly in Ohio

        Oh that sounds LOVELY! I will look up that book!

        • Mica

          Thank you, Palm – I had forgotten about Jill Bolte Taylor – and I don’t know if Queen Toad is in her first book, My Stroke of Insight, about her dreadfully incapacitating stroke and her recovery. It looks like she has a new book, too, now – Whole Brain Living – what fun. I think I’ll check out the kindle version of that one.

    • Holly in Ohio
      Here is a photo of my farm garden last year. I have about 1000 square feet of bed for vegetables, and produce enough food to feed about eight families for a year. This year, I have had a health issue which is thankfully improving, but I have not been to the farm as much. I still have some amazing garlic and four kinds of potatoes this year, though. I am very, VERY grateful to my dear friends Matt and Shuang, who invited me to grow on their land, not only because of the opportunity for me, bu...

      Here is a photo of my farm garden last year. I have about 1000 square feet of bed for vegetables, and produce enough food to feed about eight families for a year. This year, I have had a health issue which is thankfully improving, but I have not been to the farm as much. I still have some amazing garlic and four kinds of potatoes this year, though. I am very, VERY grateful to my dear friends Matt and Shuang, who invited me to grow on their land, not only because of the opportunity for me, but also because it is a very successful experiment of restorative agriculture, thanks to Matt’s vision and smarts!

      Read More
      • Anna

        It is perfect, Holly! Congratulations!
        It does not look like mine, I have a little vegetable garden, ….but I have no time!!!😊

        • Holly in Ohio
          Time is a difficult thing in a garden! I'm always looking for ways to save time out there and get more vegetables for less work!. I put cardboard in my paths so I don't have to weed the paths at all. I put plants as close together as the plants will allow and still have them fruit well and not bolt. Often I interplant with radishes, onions, lettuce, or herbs between larger plants to deter the weeds and get more use of the same space. I use fence posts, netting, and stakes to grow some vegetabl...

          Time is a difficult thing in a garden! I’m always looking for ways to save time out there and get more vegetables for less work!. I put cardboard in my paths so I don’t have to weed the paths at all. I put plants as close together as the plants will allow and still have them fruit well and not bolt. Often I interplant with radishes, onions, lettuce, or herbs between larger plants to deter the weeds and get more use of the same space. I use fence posts, netting, and stakes to grow some vegetables vertically, and this also helps with weeds by having a much smaller footprint to weed, and there are fewer pests and fungus that way, too. And I try to keep vegetables growing all the time so they hold the soil and don’t let the thistle and other weeds take over. Mostly I crowd the weeds out, I guess. As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I spent about 20 hours a week on this garden, starting very early each morning, and then quitting at about 9:30 or 10 a.m. when it would get hot out there in the big field.. but I would go every day, rain or shine, and that helped a lot with keeping up with whatever was most needed. This was the year I started from scratch and had to create the beds, too. For one family, 20-30 minutes should be enough, if it were every day and you did what you could to prevent weeds.. I figure it is about 125 square feet needed per family at this density, which is not a big space at all. As you can see, I can talk and talk and talk about gardening! Lol.

          Read More
          • Holly in Ohio

            That’s something to look forward to, Anna! I know my father just couldn’t, wouldn’t retire for the longest time, and it was really because he needed to have some vision for a happy retirement. Once he had a project and retirement vision that excited him, then he was ready to reinvent himself in retirement, and live it happily.

          • Anna

            Dear Holly, thanks for your tip, wonderful tomatoes! Now you will cook a lot of pasta !!!🥰
            As for me, I think I have no hope until my retirement!!! Maybe ten more years … 😊

  • Julia
    Hi, I'm Julia. 20 years old. I've only started recently with this wonderful loving program. I am grateful for my second chance in life and in love, grateful and blessed for my family and for the Universe, for always having my back. Grateful living is allowing me to see the good in life, and appreciate what matters especially when we are in a low vibrational space. It helps us to shift our vibrations. The blessings in my life, is that I finally moved out of my dad's and into my mom's . it's a har...

    Hi, I’m Julia. 20 years old. I’ve only started recently with this wonderful loving program. I am grateful for my second chance in life and in love, grateful and blessed for my family and for the Universe, for always having my back. Grateful living is allowing me to see the good in life, and appreciate what matters especially when we are in a low vibrational space. It helps us to shift our vibrations. The blessings in my life, is that I finally moved out of my dad’s and into my mom’s . it’s a hard process, but i’m not loved and cared for than ever. I am being supported by the life my mom is giving, how I have a roof over my head and food and love around me. What connects me to awe, is my journal, i reflect and manifest on it. my crystals are the first thing I packed when I moved out from an abusive home. they keep me grounded and their energy allows me to be in a high vibrational state, they give me hope.

    Read More
    • Mica

      Oh, Julia, Welcome! 🙏 Crystals are beautiful, aren’t they?

    • Anna

      Hi dear Julia, it is wonderful to welcome a young woman among us, I love working with young people!

    • Palm

      Hi Julia, thank you for being here 🌸

    • Holly in Ohio

      Welcome, Julia. Thank you for sharing your voice on this site. I have been coming daily for almost a year now, and this simple daily practice has made a world of difference in my life, and even that of my family members. Every journey is one step at a time.

      What other parts of this website have you discovered so far?

  • Mike S

    Dear Friends,
    I have an older cousin, Hannah, whose family, my uncle and aunt, had a home hear ours in Sharon, New Hampshire. So we saw a lot of our cousins especially during the summers. Hannah and I have always been close. Her husband is deceased and she is living comfortably in a fancy retirement community with her dog and, especially, her wonderful art. She does these lovely watercolors which I’ll start sharing with you beginning with my fafavorite. I call it night sky.

  • Annie
    Good morning lovely friends, You and your families are in my nightly prayers. I am grateful for many things on this Tuesday . Yesterday I traveled to Ct with my son and daughter for a doctors appt. I am grateful for us having a together time just the 3 of us. I am grateful for having such caring, loving children. After my appt I treated us to a dinner out at a local steakhouse ....and it was so delightful & yummy! Well I could go on and on listing the countless things I am thankful for but I...

    Good morning lovely friends, You and your families are in my nightly prayers. I am grateful for many things on this Tuesday . Yesterday I traveled to Ct with my son and daughter for a doctors appt. I am grateful for us having a together time just the 3 of us. I am grateful for having such caring, loving children. After my appt I treated us to a dinner out at a local steakhouse ….and it was so delightful & yummy! Well I could go on and on listing the countless things I am thankful for but I will just say one more …and that is you…thankful for you.

    Read More
    • Anna

      Thank you Annie, for sharing your joyful day with us.

    • Holly in Ohio

      Thank you, Annie, for holding us in your prayers. I am so glad you had a nice time! It always puts a smile on my face when I hear what is putting a smile on the face of someone else. ☺

  • Alicia
    Hello, here in gratitude and Prayerful Tuesday...grateful for sound of migrating birds...and newly picked apples so beautifully red and gold. I can hear the fluttering of sparrows’ wings...they’ve made a Roman Olive tree their home just outside a bedroom window. They scold me if I get too close. It is comical because you cannot see them..then suddenly over 20 or more fly out and sit on the top of the roof waiting for me to vacate their territory. Wishing everyone here a peaceful , safe da...

    Hello, here in gratitude and Prayerful Tuesday…grateful for sound of migrating birds…and newly picked apples so beautifully red and gold.
    I can hear the fluttering of sparrows’ wings…they’ve made a Roman Olive tree their home just outside a bedroom window.
    They scold me if I get too close. It is comical because you cannot see them..then suddenly over 20 or more fly out and sit on the top of the roof waiting for me to vacate their territory.
    Wishing everyone here a peaceful , safe day_ always.

    Read More
  • Mike S
    A poem by S. Mersin. can we begreatful through all of thi?Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings we are running out of the glass rooms with our mouths full of food to look at the sky and say thank you we are standing by the water thanking it standing by the windows looking out in our directionsback from a series of hospitals back from a mugging after funerals we are saying thank you after the news of the dead whether or not ...

    A poem by S. Mersin. can we begreatful through all of thi?Listen
    with the night falling we are saying thank you
    we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
    we are running out of the glass rooms
    with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
    and say thank you
    we are standing by the water thanking it
    standing by the windows looking out
    in our directionsback from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
    after funerals we are saying thank you
    after the news of the dead
    whether or not we knew them we are saying thank youover telephones we are saying thank you
    in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
    remembering wars and the police at the door
    and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
    in the banks we are saying thank you
    in the faces of the officials and the rich
    and of all who will never change
    we go on saying thank you thank youwith the animals dying around us
    taking our feelings we are saying thank you
    with the forests falling faster than the minutes
    of our lives we are saying thank you
    with the words going out like cells of a brain
    with the cities growing over us
    we are saying thank you faster and faster
    with nobody listening we are saying thank you
    thank you we are saying and waving
    dark though it is~W. S. MERWIN

    Read More
    • Mica

      Thank you, Mike – I never heard of him, but I don’t keep up with poets or poetry. That is amazing and shocking. I googled him and read his obit in the NYT. It is a timely poem, unfortunately.

    • Holly in Ohio

      Wow! What a lovely poem!

      Thank you!

  • Tichondrax

    Greetings Earthlings. Have a blessed Sunday 🌞🌄🌅👽 Not so sunny here but the cool drizzle is very welcome.

  • Holly in Ohio
    Semi-awake and sipping my coffee! Good morning, she says (with half lidded eyes). I am so inspired by the lovely photos people have posted recently! It brings me joy to see some of the things YOU see!!!! I wish I could send you a photo of the beautiful maple in my front yard, but I will wait for it to turn color first. I'm looking forward to it with anticipation! But I took some other photos recently. I didn't get to weeding in my yard this year, and that bothered me until I saw that several ...

    Semi-awake and sipping my coffee! Good morning, she says (with half lidded eyes).
    I am so inspired by the lovely photos people have posted recently! It brings me joy to see some of the things YOU see!!!! I wish I could send you a photo of the beautiful maple in my front yard, but I will wait for it to turn color first. I’m looking forward to it with anticipation! But I took some other photos recently. I didn’t get to weeding in my yard this year, and that bothered me until I saw that several of the plants bloomed in early autumn and were attracting a crazy amount of pollinating species! Just saying the two words, “Pollinator Garden” transformed my perspective from “weedy and neglected guilt!: Hahahaha. It is kind of wicked being in my back yard at present as the tiny little pollinating wasps like to bite me, too, but it is also fascinating. Each time I look I see at least four different species of pollinators on the goldenrod and this other plant that I think my neighbor called, “bloodroot.” I don’t know if you will be able to see the tiny pollinators on them… hopefully. I’m grateful that my neglect turned out to be so beneficial for the environment! I’m thinking of planting some butterfly weed, too! I did see a monarch butterfly in our yard, too. They like milkweed, but I don’t have any of that, yet. 😀
    It is comforting to know that while we all deal with our human concerns, nature is quietly going about her business.

    Read More
    • Holly in Ohio

      Woops… I didn’t know that was going to be blurry. Here is the other one:

      • Mica
        Lovely goldenrod, Holly - it brings me back to fond memories of Girl Scout camp, when we gathered the dried stalks for tinder for our campfires and cook0out fires. The 'good old days' brought some of the problems of today - every session, all the girls would get a new green stick for roasting marshmallows. Recently, there was a milkweed with pink flowers that we were supposed to plant to attract butterflies. 'Turns out it doesn't bloom at the correct time for our butterflies :( Here's a photo ...

        Lovely goldenrod, Holly – it brings me back to fond memories of Girl Scout camp, when we gathered the dried stalks for tinder for our campfires and cook0out fires. The ‘good old days’ brought some of the problems of today – every session, all the girls would get a new green stick for roasting marshmallows.
        Recently, there was a milkweed with pink flowers that we were supposed to plant to attract butterflies. ‘Turns out it doesn’t bloom at the correct time for our butterflies 🙁
        Here’s a photo from 1998, perhaps by my then hubby, giving a vague idea of the incredible density of monarchs near us during their migration season!

        Read More
        • Anna

          Wonderful photos Holly and Mica, so I can see something of your life as well.

          • Mica

            Yes, Anna – Holly and I both love nature, and we have such different types of nature around us. Mine is mostly my balcony now, but I face it now as I type at my computer stand, so it is a big part of my life.

        • Holly in Ohio

          Oh my gosh!!! Look at those!!! 😁

          • Holly in Ohio

            My aunt had some funny expressions, and instead of either, she would say, “Oh for Good Night!”

          • Mica

            Indeed, yes, Holly!
            My bro said ‘Oh my goodness’ and I picked that up. My granddaughter, in preschool at the time, told me, ‘No, Granny, you’re supposed to say Oh my gosh!’

  • Holly in Ohio

    It is still warm and pleasant here and I have the windows open even at night, but the nights are definitely cooler and the black walnut leaves are starting to fall.
    What is the weather like where you are? And are you getting a seasonal change?

    • Tichondrax

      Yes we are. Lots of acorns and walnuts falling at the garden center I work at 🌰🍃🍁🍂🌽

      • Holly in Ohio

        I was just sitting in my neighbor’s back yard and she has a HUUUUGE beautiful Burr Oak, and the wind was blowing a little so we sometimes got rained on by sheets of acorns. It was fun. She apologized but I said, “I don’t mind! I have Black Walnuts at my house. Those will bean you!” She suggested we get air raid helmets. 🤣

        • Mica

          Fun! I love the eastern oaks. California live oaks are nice, too, but not quite the same to me, having grown up in SW PA. I remember white oaks most fondly, and some oak with more spiky leaves whose name I forget. Ducks here are excited by the acorns in the fall, and I’ll shake live oak branches, and acorns fall for the ducks. It’s fun. I live in a condo community named ‘Woodlake’ and we have beautiful grounds with a ‘lake’ in the middle. My sister-in-law from WY says it’s only a ‘pond.’

          • Holly in Ohio
            You are lucky to have a wee lake and ducks and oak trees! Near here we have many condo communities, but Lighthouse Point isn't on the lake, HarborWalk is on a small river and obviously has no harbor, Cherry Ridge has neither cherry trees nor has it a ridge of any sort (this being NE Ohio we are rather flat). Your condo village sounds charming! I'm starting to think of holiday gifts.... yes, already! I like thinking way ahead because I dislike the shopping hoopla! I like to be done with purc...

            You are lucky to have a wee lake and ducks and oak trees! Near here we have many condo communities, but Lighthouse Point isn’t on the lake, HarborWalk is on a small river and obviously has no harbor, Cherry Ridge has neither cherry trees nor has it a ridge of any sort (this being NE Ohio we are rather flat). Your condo village sounds charming!

            I’m starting to think of holiday gifts…. yes, already! I like thinking way ahead because I dislike the shopping hoopla! I like to be done with purchased gifts by Thanksgiving so that I can enjoy the following month and focus on experiences with loved ones and the season rather than on spending, “sales,” and consumption. Some gifts will be made and some thoughtfully chosen. And I’m thinking about what I might make with acorns for decorations or tree ornaments, or if I could maybe make a fairy tea setting out of these deep acorn caps for the children who live in the neighborhood. There are a couple of young boys in the neighborhood who like fantasy and monsters and things like that, and they have good imagination and making things, too. I think they might enjoy it. 😊

            Read More
    • Alicia
      It is deliciously warm here and the humidity is low. The nights are cool. Apples are ready for picking. Hummingbirds and goldfinches are ready to leave. Each day I see them is a gift. Grass is thick and deep green from all the rains. Our red maples are turning gold to bright red. Cloud cover is nearly nothing the past few nights so lakes and river water is cold, but clear. This is the time I fell in love decades ago . The change of season can make me feel , in a way, as I did when very young ...

      It is deliciously warm here and the humidity is low. The nights are cool. Apples are ready for picking. Hummingbirds and goldfinches are ready to leave. Each day I see them is a gift. Grass is thick and deep green from all the rains. Our red maples are turning gold to bright red. Cloud cover is nearly nothing the past few nights so lakes and river water is cold, but clear.
      This is the time I fell in love decades ago . The change of season can make me feel , in a way, as I did when very young and naive. It’s a good memory . It’s ok to have the memory of being naive.

      Read More
    • Palm

      Hello Holly and everyone, I had mentioned this tree on the question of the day: the tree with the log steps. This is how it looks like at the moment in Johannesburg: brown after the dry winter. Normally the rains should start any time now and then the landscape should turn green again.

      • Anna

        Wonderful, Palm!
        It is so strange to see spring arrive in your country as the first leaves begin to fall here!

      • Holly in Ohio

        What a beauty of a tree! You can feel its spirit. It makes my heart sing! ❤💛💚💙

      • Mica

        I love it, Palm! Thank you – 🙏 ☺️ 😍

    • Anna

      Here there is a photo I took during my holidays, in the central Italy, close to Palm’s parents village.

    • Anna

      Hello dear Holly. September is hot so far.
      Summer was not the as warm as we expected in northern Italy, while in the south we had drought and many fires.
      It is not raining, I think this early autumn is not the best for mushrooms!
      If I can capture an interesting landscape, I’ll post a photo.

      • Holly in Ohio

        The photo is gorgeous! It looks like a painted landscape. I remember that fine oil paints were often made of the earths in Italy, and that colors are named after places, like “sienna” and “umber” and “Naples yellow.” Is this place near any of those? I thought of it because the color of the earth in your photo reminds me of the color “Raw Sienna.” It is very inspiring!

        • Anna

          Oh yes, it is near to Umbria and Tuscany, therefore close to Siena, Perugia, Assisi.
          Roma is closer than Napoli.
          I know the photos of Siena, because those hills are just amazing!
          In my photo there are no hills, the landscape is mostly mountains but due to the drought, it is actually yellow.

    • Mica

      Dear Holly and other Lounge friends, I’m grateful to have wonderful weather still in September. I worried about the summer heat at the beginning of the summer, but it hasn’t come [yet]. I’m expecting it will come before the end of October, but I’ve stopped Worrying, because that was such a waste of energy, at the beginning of the summer 🙂

      • Holly in Ohio

        I was worried, too, Mica. But you are right… it is a waste to worry. Will you paint me a picture, Mica? Can you tell me something pretty you see out your windows?

        • Mica

          Dear Holly, Here’s a picture of a parent dove and its newborn baby dove, born Aug 31, in front of it, in their nest. There are some pine needles in front of the baby dove. Both parents spend about the same amount of time sitting on the nest and taking care of the baby bird:

          • Palm

            How beautiful, dear Mica

          • Holly in Ohio

            OH MY GOSH!!! That is so exciting! I am amazed you could get such a good photo!
            If it were me I’d be at the window ALL DAY and get nothing done! 😁

  • Ose
    Good morning, friends! Just grateful for being here with you all, and would like to share a recent experience with you. A friend of mine recently told me about a beautiful way she got to know, of how to turning a bad mood or possible currently unpleasant emotions, which might be present, or my sometimes feeling distant to others into experiencing joy and lightness. She said she would silently say “I love you” to the one(s) she encounters, sometimes over and over again, and just this thought ...

    Good morning, friends! Just grateful for being here with you all, and would like to share a recent experience with you. A friend of mine recently told me about a beautiful way she got to know, of how to turning a bad mood or possible currently unpleasant emotions, which might be present, or my sometimes feeling distant to others into experiencing joy and lightness. She said she would silently say “I love you” to the one(s) she encounters, sometimes over and over again, and just this thought brought back the light. I tried it, and it then was and still is just beautifully helping me to feel deeply with each other when I felt or feel to be a bit “off” for a moment being. The immediate change of my internal and even the external atmosphere was really stunning to me and helped a lot to open up when last weekend, I was almost feeling scared before attending a seminar. It became the bridge of being together with all these lovely people like being home and was helping me to include all. I am deeply grateful for my friend for having mentioned this and for having had this soothing and joyful experience. It also helps a lot to just stand still and be with a given difficult situation where I feel I cannot actively change something for the moment being. So grateful for all of you, and for your presence. Have a lovely day you all!

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    • Palm

      This is lovely, dear Ose. I think that this is our natural state and that, by doing the exercise you mention, we just remember it. I am grateful for everyone too.

    • Mica
      I love you, Ose, and Holly, and Anna and Mrudavi and Mike, and everyone else! ❤️ 💕 💖 🥰 💘 💗 It works - I have happy tears in the corners of my eyes. Thank you, Ose - that's wonderful - and so so simple! I'll try to remember to do it when I'm at a challenging seminar next month - and, of course, before then: "silently say “I love you” to the one(s) she encounters, sometimes over and over again" - hugs 🤗 and many warm wishes and thanks 🙏 😊 🤩 ☺️ 😍 for this...

      I love you, Ose, and Holly, and Anna and Mrudavi and Mike, and everyone else! ❤️ 💕 💖 🥰 💘 💗 It works – I have happy tears in the corners of my eyes. Thank you, Ose – that’s wonderful – and so so simple! I’ll try to remember to do it when I’m at a challenging seminar next month – and, of course, before then: “silently say “I love you” to the one(s) she encounters, sometimes over and over again” – hugs 🤗 and many warm wishes and thanks 🙏 😊 🤩 ☺️ 😍 for this wonderful advice!

      Read More
    • Holly in Ohio

      Thank you for sharing this, Ose. I’m going to give it a try!

    • Anna

      Thank you Ose for your suggestion. I will try. I remember an essay of a woman, (maybe I read it in this site,) that uses to honour the God she sees in everyone she meets.
      Have a blessed day dear Ose!

  • Holly in Ohio

    Good morning, everyone!

    “At some point in life, the world’s beauty becomes enough.”
    – Toni Morrison

  • Mrudavi

    Hi, you guys. I am Mrudavi from India. (new here)
    I am really excited to be here. To be honest, I have been meaning to cultivate gratitude into my routine, but sometimes it happens, sometimes not.
    I am hoping that with this community, I can make it a daily practice.
    Cheers <3

    • Anna

      Hi Mrudavi, welcome here!
      It is a good place. Have a blessed day.

    • Mica

      Hi, Mrudavi – where in India are you from? Welcome 🙂
      I like the part of this morning’s quote: Life is not about “or” — it is about “and.”

      • Mrudavi

        Hi Mica! I am from Nagpur, Maharashtra. Where are you from?
        Yes, the quote is absolutely beautiful

        • Mica

          I live a little bit south of San Francisco, California. Welcome, again, Mrudavi. I visited Kolkata about 15 yrs ago, and then my daughter and I visited New Delhi and a couple cities in Rajasthan. I’ll keep my eyes open for mentions of Maharashtra.

    • Ose

      Welcome dear Mrudavi, and thanks for joining!

    • Palm

      Hi Mrudavi, this site has helped me so much, I hope it will be the same for you. Thank you for being here.

      • Mrudavi

        Thank you for such a warm welcome Palm!
        I am glad to be here.

      • Holly in Ohio

        Welcome, Mrudavi! Thank you for introducing yourself and joining our community!
        I love that we have people in our community from several countries. It feels like it makes this community “warmer” to have diversity. 😊

        • Mrudavi

          Thanks Holly! It does feel very warm and welcoming being a part of this community. I am looking forward to this journey 😀

  • Holly in Ohio
    Today I am grateful that the inspection stage is done on our grant application. It was stressful, particularly when they called to say they were coming an hour early! It went... interestingly. We are applying for a grant because our house was built in 1894, and the foundation needs repair and we've gotten bids but can't afford it on our own. We had understood this grant covers that... well... it does and it doesn't, turns out. They administer two grants and the one we applied for, the "repa...

    Today I am grateful that the inspection stage is done on our grant application. It was stressful, particularly when they called to say they were coming an hour early!

    It went… interestingly. We are applying for a grant because our house was built in 1894, and the foundation needs repair and we’ve gotten bids but can’t afford it on our own. We had understood this grant covers that… well… it does and it doesn’t, turns out. They administer two grants and the one we applied for, the “repair,” doesn’t cover it. They will repair one thing, but not foundation. They want to replace our windows, which would indeed be a HUGE expense because we have 38 of them! But they have another grant which is a “renovation,” where they would “bring everything up to code.” And that one could include the foundation. It sounds great… if we get it… but these grants never go exactly how you want them because most of the job is decided by them… that’s the trade off. So anyway, while we are trying to figure out how we feel about this, they will be reviewing the information and photos they took and will be creating job estimates, and will call us at the end of this week or beginning of next week with what they decide THEY want to do… sigh. But while they were here they tested our gas furnace and gas hot water heater, and those got a clean bill of health.

    Meanwhile, while waiting to hear back on the grant… I want to get rid of more stuff! Now that I have this inspection over with I can contact the antique dealer again about some extra furniture around here, and try to get some boxes off to Good Will. I also have to get back to painting the kitchen, but she (the inspector) told me, “Don’t bother painting the windows right now.” Okay.

    My face has broken out from the stress, hahaha. I look very pink and blotchy, kind of like I’d been tossed face first into raspberry bushes. So I’m going to just be thankful, thankful, thankful… and relax today, maybe goof off… watch television if anything is on… fold my laundry… give myself a free card on what I feel like eating….and do nothing very important!!! B-R-E-A-T-H-E—D-E-E-P!

    My husband is making dinner… that’s another reason to be thankful!

    Read More
    • Mica

      Wow, Holly – 1894 – that’s exciting – and difficult! Give yourself a big hug 🤗

    • Palm

      Well done, Holly, one more step. It sounds to me like whatever the outcome, there will be improvements to the house.
      When my daughter has a meltdown (rarely), her face becomes red spotted. I am glad you gave yourself some TLC 🙂

    • Anna

      Happy for you dear Holly. I do not know how this kind of matters are managed in the US, but tit is good that your stress has gone away.

      • Holly in Ohio

        Thank you, Ladies, so much for your caring!

        I put good old-fashioned calamine lotion on my face last night, Palm, and it helped to soothe it and I’m not red this morning!

  • Mica

    I like today’s quote: The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. EDEN PHILLPOTTS
    It’s sort of like one of my beliefs, which is “Science doesn’t know everything.”

  • Mike S

    Thanks everyone for your prayers and well wishes. I am glad to say that my vertigo is beginning to abate. Truly something to be thankful for

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