Daily Gratitude: You’ve seen funny video after funny video about some animal that has intense focus. Maybe it’s a dog in its crate staring through the bars at its favorite toy (or if your dogs are anything like mine were, they are coveting that scrap of food they see on the floor next to your chair). Then they decide they are going to get it. No matter what it takes they work and work to get themselves out of their crates to be united with that special object. I have been amazed at the confines my contortionist Siberian huskies were able to escape. Have you ever been like that? Have you ever been in a situation where you see nothing else but that goal? Nothing can stand in your way and you reschedule everything on your calendar so you can devote every moment to that thing. That is focus. The more you focus on it, the better you get. An obstacle comes along? No problem. You’ve got it covered. You’ll find a way around or over it, just like my huskies. The more you work at achieving this one thing, the more it takes over your life. Then the more it takes over your life, the more invested you are. Nothing will stop you now! Then “all of a sudden” (which really isn’t all of a sudden if you look at it objectively), what you were working for appears in your life. What is your focus in life right now? Are you happy with that? Are you easily distracted? What will it take from you to bring your focus back to where it belongs? You must answer this (and other) questions. It takes great effort and desire to break the inertia of sitting around wondering “what should I do?”. You have to have something that makes you want to bust through the inertia and make you focus. Find that, get a support system, and there will be no stopping you!

Daily Gratitude: I definitely believe everything is a miracle! It’s all in how you look at things. You can make your own determination as to whether you think something is a miracle or not. It may take some creative thinking and thinking way beyond your immediate sight. Something that seems to be wrong for you may end up helping someone a thousand miles away and who’s in a pinch. We just can’t wait to see that before we declare something a miracle. Believing it is a miracle for someone is what’s required. Catherine Ponder (a great metaphysical minister) always would say “I declare it good!” No matter how anything looked. Don’t feel that you have to see “it” to believe it. The great authors like Wayne Dyer and Emmet Fox tell us that we will see it when we believe it! You don’t have to have the evidence, just the faith!

Daily Gratitude: It seems we’ve lost sight of this. Instead of having each other’s backs, we’re at each other’s backs. We must always remember, though, that we are a tribal species and we are made and programmed to work together. Can you find just one or two other people in your life and work together with them for a short bit. They may not hold all the same ideas you have but if they are people you want to hang around with, then they have some qualities you admire and want to cultivate. Can you and they make a pact to work together on something simple, or at least not controversial? Since politics is the big triggering and dividing topic nowadays what can you bond over that has nothing to do with politics? Make it something you both can actually do something about – maybe it’s helping the unhoused people in your area, or working at a food pantry? Anything in service to others. Focus on what you can do, not the hopeless feelings that accompany the things you have no control over. That way you can actually make a difference and at the same time strengthen the bond and companionship you are fostering. There are many things you have in common. Why not concentrate on those things you can actually influence? You’ll feel better and so will the people you’re working with