To enrich means to improve or enhance the quality or value of…..

Many people conscientiously record a daily list of things they are grateful for – what I call “gratitudes”. But some people just don’t take to that and I think that happens for a variety of reasons. And that’s ok. I have personally learned that gratitude is the strongest force in the universe so it means something very special to me.

I had two experiences yesterday that made me realize there is another way to examine and reflect on your day. Why bother? Well, as you hear over and over – there is no guarantee that there will be a tomorrow so we should make the most of today and this moment.

I had three events yesterday – one was my walk; two was a class assigned group meeting with two other women; and three was my first “visit” with a friend where we could just sit and talk – not only was this a first in over a year but it was really the first time I’ve invited someone into my house (to get to the back patio where we visited) since I’ve done all the decluttering.

If I asked you which one you would think enriched my life the most, you’d probably pick the last. You’d be close but the one that enriched my life the most yesterday (because I think we are different each day) was the second. This is no reflection on the friendship i have with this woman because that is about as solid as it can be. And we talked for hours catching up. So yes, it did enrich my life and enhanced it too – interesting that enhance and enrich have almost the same definitions.

But the call with these two women I didn’t know really added something special to my life. We didn’t know each other and had just “met” in class last Thursday so there was the usual awkwardness of “getting to know you” (my age is showing when I start singing old songs like that). And I wasn’t keen on the assignment we had since it didn’t really make much sense to me. However, I allowed myself to just go with the flow and we all just seemed to open up and learned so much from each other. Then afterwards when we were emailing each other some information, we opened up more and it became an experience of connection that I have rarely experienced with people I don’t know. It helped me see somewhere else deep inside myself (which is part of the purpose of this class we’re taking). It simply felt lovely and those of you that really know me – or even those who have just followed this page – can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used that word. I am not likely to describe anything as “lovely” – ha ha..But this was.

So I have decided that I am going to incorporate a new reflection into my daily life and that is reviewing each day what has enriched (or enhanced) my life that day.

Why don’t you try it? I think the other good thing that will come from it is that we will recognize how wonderful our life is despite the intermittent crap that shows up. Remember my post a few months ago on contrast vs clarity – we need the stuff that we don’t really like or enjoy to know what it is we really want.

Today’s gratitudes:
I am so grateful for my friend’s visit and for her friendship. It means the world to me.

I am grateful I can walk the distances I do walk. I will concentrate on the joy of that rather than comparing and worrying that I’m not doing longer distances. That comparison steals the happiness from what I do and is not worth it. I am trying to concentrate on that more.

I am grateful that I still have a lot to give to people even at my age. It is a blessing and I hope to live up to the intent of this gift I’ve been given