Hello lovely friends:

So grateful to be here with you as Prayer Tuesday comes to a close.

We are settling in nicely here in our new house. Each day it feels more and more like “home”. Our children were all here this past weekend helping us to unload the last of our possessions from the cargo trailer. I stayed out of the way and in the kitchen, cooking for everyone. Needless to say, I was filled with gratitude. My heart opened up to joy. I stayed fully present and the anxiety and stress of the past few months melted away.

Tomorrow my husband and I are off on a road trip to Montana to visit with his sisters. They are so easy to be with and I anticipate being with them will be another balm for my weary spirit. I even booked a massage appointment with a friend of theirs…continuing my journey of self-care.
I am grateful for the trauma therapist that is helping me navigate my way through this latest part of my journey.

I am most especially grateful for the love and support of my family. And for the awareness of God’s Presence….as near as my next breath.
This Divine Promise has been speaking to me lately…sharing with my grateful love ♥

“The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth” (Isaiah 40:4)

Good morning sacred community on this another Prayer Tuesday

It is a joy to be here with you. That word “joy”, along with “equanimity” keeps appearing to me. Calling to me really.
I read something recently that really spoke to me and I have been pondering ever since:

“Some people respond to their blessings with equanimity, and they quietly remove the sting from their tragedies. We can learn to do both”
My journal response to this was that I don’t know if I can ever respond to my blessings with equanimity….I am just so overwhelmed with gratitude for them! But I hope that I can quietly remove the sting from my tragedies…by being grateful for even the difficult, challenging, painful times that visit.
I think this is where joy appears….that quiet certitude that all will be well and that God is always working for my highest good, no matter my unreliable and incomplete view of what is transpiring.

This recent trauma that has occurred in my life…it has taken a while to process and let it play out. But I am closing in on joy for the blessings that were hiding underneath…waiting to be discovered, acknowledged and embraced. I can say that I am grateful, even if still a little shaky.
I am indeed overwhelmed with gratitude (no equanimity happening!) that we are living here in this beautiful state with our daughters…not 2,000 miles away anymore. All the stress and anxiety that came with that move, and subsequent challenging events, pale in comparison.

~Have a blessed day friends ♥

Good morning lovely community:
So grateful to be here with you on this Prayer Tuesday.

I did not visit last week as I was still processing a traumatic event that I experienced. Sadly, we had to move quickly out of our rental home as there was a violent altercation followed by rapid gunfire right outside our bedroom. I had an intense delayed reaction and have since seen a trauma therapist for the PTSD that I am experiencing.

It’s taken me awhile to get to a place of gratitude for this trauma. And I can’t say that I am totally there yet. But, I now can acknowledge, that there are some silver linings in this dark cloud that visited me and I am working on embracing them.

I will continue in therapy with a trauma specialist as I navigate my way through the after-effects. My husband slept through this event and our younger daughter was spending the night at our older daughter’s house when this occurred. I am very grateful that they were spared. I admit though to feeling very alone in this experience.

For now, I am truly grateful that I and my family are safe. That I have a trained professional to guide me (who by the way came to me in true serendipity), and for the love, support and understanding of my husband and daughters when I feel overcome with fear and anxiety.

And, as always, I am grateful for all of you here in this sacred community. Thank you for traveling with me on this often unpredictable journey.
I’m reminded of a quote from Ram Dass that our dear friend Pilgrim once shared:
“We are all just walking each other home”

~Om shanti friends ♥

Good morning lovely friends on this another Prayer Tuesday. So grateful to be here with you on a very sunny and hot day here in our new home state.

I have a different thermostat than most people so these 90+ degree days are a delight for me. It is a dry heat out here in the western U.S….much different from the summer humidity I experienced for the first 65 years of my life back on the east coast!

Today I am grateful for the 2 rituals that are part of my Tuesdays. Each week I walk over to the thrift store nearby to see what treasures I can find for our new home. Tuesday is “senior citizen” day there and most things are 1/2 off. This has been such a blessing because our home purchase was much more expensive than what we had hoped. But real estate out here is ridiculous and, despite the anxiety of stretching ourselves financially, I am truly grateful that we found a home in a 55+ community like we had wanted. God and Mother Mary in their infinite grace paved the way every step of the way. I felt I was living out the promise of Luke 3 that “our crooked path would be made straight and the rough ways made smooth” 🙏

Of course, my other Tuesday ritual is to visit here with all of you!
Thank you for being here, for your grace and unconditional acceptance. For the kindness, compassion and wisdom that you share so generously and authentically. I feel truly blessed by the miracle of our unique friendships.

~With grateful love ♥

Dear Laura
Thank you for this gift of Earth Altars. I wanted to share with you the blessing it became for me at a time when I needed it.
My sister died in February, during the pandemic, and far away from me so I could not be with her during her last days in hospice and when she eventually passed on. In the midst of this, my husband and I were driving 2,000 miles across the country, pulling a cargo trailer, during a bizarre frigid polar vortex. My grief was therefore weirdly mixed with crippling fear and anxiety. By God’s grace, we arrived safely, settled into our rental home, and began the process of searching for a permanent home…more stress and anxiety! Still no time or space to grieve for my sister.
I recalled seeing your video and reading about your Earth Altars and so I set as my intention that, once the snow had melted and spring had arrived, I would create an Earth Altar in my sister’s memory.

On my sister’s birthday, May 20th, I spent the morning gathering and creating. When I was done, I sat by the altar and prayed, sang, and chatted with my sister….with cleansing tears and a heart filled with gratitude that I was finally able to fully grieve. It was a healing time for me.
I can’t thank you enough for this beautiful gift. I posted a picture on the gratitude lounge if you would like to see it….St. Francis is watching over my altar and that is a giant mushroom in the center that I found in the yard! 😊
~With my grateful love….Om Shanti Laura ♥

I love these videos…they never fail to inspire and encourage me on my gratefulness journey. How do you find these lovely people?
Nirmala’s story moves me to be more light-hearted. To laugh more. To present to the world my authentic self. I am searching for who that is. Nirmala is an inspiration…she is unabashedly her authentic wonderful misfit self! I wish I could sit with her and have a cup of tea. It seems to me that just being in her presence would bring me closer to my own authenticity.
Thank you for the gift of this, and all, your videos.

Happy Prayer Tuesday lovely people:

I am just stopping by to say hello, to wish you all a most blessed and joy-filled day, and to thank you for being awesome. 🥰

Julian of Norwich visited me today as I searched my heart for something encouraging to write in a card to a loved one who is experiencing a heaviness of spirit.

With my grateful love I share these beautiful words of hope with all of you
~Om Shanti friends ♥

““All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”
― Julian of Norwich

Dear Mike:

I discovered this gratitude lounge many years ago when I had left a church that I came to realize was actually a cult. I was wounded and afraid and alone and needed a soft place to land. First, I was gifted with Henri Nouwen…..he is to this day my “guru” in my spiritual journey. And then, miraculously I found these beautiful people that have become my friends. They offered me unconditional acceptance, grace and wisdom. This is my faith community….I have no other. I feel a belonging here. So very grateful.

How blessed we all are that you have joined us here. I join with you in gratitude for this sacred space…you are right, it is a wonder of this life.
~Blessings friend ♥