If basic needs are based upon Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs, then as a child I was missing the basic needs of safety and security. Food was mostly provided even if it was unpredictable and perhaps sporadic.
But I will choose to focus on the present moment and now I lack nothing.
I’m grateful for not having to worry about basic needs and that my children are also being provided for is also a relief.
My heart goes out to all the sentient beings who are struggling/ suffering due to a lack of basic needs. I vow to do my best to help in any way I can. Today I’m going to a volunteer course about contagiousness. I’m volunteering this week so I want to be mindful of caring enough not to pass on viral infections. Gotta start somewhere!

One way I express gratitude is by being grateful upon waking up each morning. I’m grateful for my breath and the opportunity to have 24 hours to live. I joyfully do my best to set intentions to practice loving kindness and compassionate understanding imbued with wisdom.
Another way of expressing gratitude is by remembering what Brother David teaches about stop, look and go. I stop and see how my eyes are always set of life because they allow me to see the beauty all around me. My eyes are a wonder off life and I’m grateful.

Hi Dusty,
Like you I have experienced, food insecurities, predators, insecure living situations and sexual abuse, stockers and many adults who were untrustworthy and unethical.
I appreciate the link you sent about the man in Minnesota and his unpredictable upbringing. It’s funny because even though I grew up in Hawaii I went to the university of Minnesota. So I recognize a lot of that reckless drug culture there. Resilience seems to have a lot to do with survival.
I think taking on responsibility for how our minds work has a huge impact on our future. For example, a mind which tends to cling to blame, resentment, shame, anger, apathy is not one in which promotes resilience. I believe mind training and watching what our minds are getting up to Is a key ingredient to resilience.
We have these reptile brains which are constantly looking out for fear or danger , but not all the “stories” we tell about our past are useful or necessary anymore.
I believe the grace of letting go of these thoughts of repetitive stories of the past is a useful and necessary way to put path to liberation. This of course does not mean by any means that we do not recognize what has happened to us in the past. I believe that in order to move forward we must of course recognize the situation for what it was. karma is not simple it’s action. The actions of our past accumulate and are ripping in our present moment.
Fortunately, we have a new breath and a new moment unfolding in which we can make a new decision on how to respond to whatever is occurring.
Knowing this makes me grateful and joyful!
It means I have choices ! It means freedom and liberty. I think when Nelson Mandela left the prison he was in he said it best. He left that prison with all of his baggage of hate and anger and disillusionment and walked in freedom. We all have this choice!
Thanks for sharing.

Dusty, I’m sorry for
Your loss and I know how loss of identity feels too. I lost a lot within a very short time too. Heath, job, marriage, had to move which threw me into a spiral.
I think the loss of identity which entails all of the list makes us reel in fear and loneliness.
This is where it gets juicy. What do we do with all this ? All this pain and suffering? That’s what really matters isn’t it ? It’s the making of resilience.
When we let go of “the storyline we keep retelling over and over to others as well as in our own minds over and over we start to heal. The hardest part is to observe the stories we tell ourselves- the stories we find to be so real and true.
Letting go of this so called identity is the first step of the letting go over and over.
This is the practice of our life journey.
Let go or be dragged.
Please keep in touch . I am sending you energy and you’re not alone . ♥️

Dusty this is perfect and a glimpse at the true nature of reality. I for some reason Kepp coming back to these posts. They are filled with everything and yet empty of permanence. It’s wonderful to slow down and reflect moment by moment. And I find myself trying to pin down this moment in time- stay here and grasp to figure out the meaning of it all.
I would add to the planting of a seed to be much like the making of humans and indeed all sentient beings! The becoming and unbecoming over and over again life after life without an end or a beginning.