Daily Gratitude: I know a lot of people that have gratitude journals. And they even write in those journals. But I also see how they behave during the other 23 hours and 50 minutes. And sometimes I think they forget to see all the blessings that surround them- even in the midst of chaos and drama. Maybe a loved one is in the hospital – or maybe you, yourself needs medical care. Sure that’s upsetting but can you see how blessed you are that you or your loved one has access to such good care and services. Maybe they’re at the end of life and you’re sad, scared and even angry. Can you be grateful that there are pain meds so that they don’t have to suffer as much? Find the simple things. They are there if you just look beyond the immediate difficulty you’re experiencing. When they say “count your blessings”, maybe we should take that literally and instead of counting sheep or counting to ten, we could count our blessings.

Daily Gratitude: Everything you need and want really is inside yourself. Think back to when you were a child. Remember your dreams? What happened to or with those dreams? Were you the type of kid/person who let nothing stand in your way? If so, that’s what this quote is all about. When I was4, God told me I was going to be a doctor. After that, it was simply a part of my being. It was a sculpture being created. A bit here, a bit there. All the pieces eventually fell into place and I finally became a doctor. Then it needed polishing and life experience provided that. My “insides” are still working on finalizing that piece- because the dream to help people is still within. I’m not practicing as a doctor any longer and over the past 5 years (since retirement), the sculpture has needed some scrubbing and dusting but as long as it wasn’t buried in the rubble of a hoarding mind, it was able to shine again. Along came the opportunity to become a doula and help people in a different way. If you think there’s no dream or attainable desire within you, think again. Once you identify that desire and hold it firmly in your thoughts, crowding out the negative parts telling you it’s ridiculous, you are in the process of allowing your sculpture to shine – either again or for the first time. It’s up to you what you do now – let the dust read cumulate OR put it up on a pedestal for display. Which course of action are you going to take?

Daily Gratitude: Do you just fold up and crumble when adversity comes roaring at you? Do you freeze standing on the tracks as a train comes barreling toward you? Or, perhaps, instead of crumbling, you look at what’s happened and start figuring out how you can use this obstacles to improve yourself and your situation. What are you learning from it? It may be as simple as just not reacting. I had the worst possible training walk the other day and I was so discouraged and disappointed. I was worried and started thinking that meant I wouldn’t be able to complete vol state this year. Then i stopped myself and reminded “me” that it was still the beginning of May and I had time to work it out. I also calmed down when I told myself that it was just one bad day. And that one bad day didn’t mean everything was bad. That’s a huge change for me – to get out of the all or nothing thinking. Now this realization doesn’t mean that I’ll just ignore what happened but it does mean I can put it in perspective and not waste so much time and energy worrying about it. I need to lay my foundation here, I.e. see if I can figure out all the possible reasons and then decide how to proceed to test my theories. It’s a much different way of looking at life but a much more productive one. We’ll see what happens to this foundation I’ve started to lay.