Rolly read somewhere that living in a beautiful landscape was good for your health. From my experience, it is not living in beautiful places, it is more the ability to see the beauty, to take it in. Sometimes no matter how beautiful the outside is, it does not get to the inside…
I am grateful to be able to appreciate the beautiful landscape around me.

After lunch, I had an hankering for something sweet. As Rolly  was visiting me at work, I asked if he had a sweet in his pocket. He didn’t. After the visit Rolly left and came back 5 minutes later with a chocolate caramel square from Rogers’ Chocolate. I love sweet surprises!

I listened to the Thanksgiving message of Donny Epstein and he talks about having awareness about the gift of life. This gratitude exercise I am doing is also to increase this awareness for me. I am grateful I get to practice seeing the gift of life.
Donny Epstein also says that gratitude can be a way of life. He says “Gratitude provides a source of unbound energy which influence the space or the field between you and others.”
How does it get any better than that?

Patience was not very present in my day today. I am grateful I still had a great day.

I am grateful for discovering a new place: an Indore garden with a grand piano and a koi pond! How does it get any better than that?

I received a message from a friend I haven’t seen in a few years asking how I am doing. I wanted to say that I am looking at being more grateful for my life and stopped myself because it sounded (to me) as if I am not grateful for my life.
And as I am pondering what I am grateful for today while looking at the last rays of sunshine on the mountains, I realize that some days I feel grateful for little things that I didn’t use to feel grateful for. In my head, I would have said I am grateful, of course, but I wasn’t feeling it. Today, I can see that feeling gratitude is a muscle and as I am practicing gratitude, I feel it more and more. I am grateful for the feeling of gratitude.

I am grateful for the sun’s warmth through the window, a big hug from a friend, and beautiful moon shining in the cold outside while I am in a warm house.

Gratitude for the show of the birds comings and going at the feeder. I had never seen Blue Jays before. I always get confused by the Stellar Jay that has a bright blue head. Now I know…

Another gratitude milestone. How does it get any better than that?
Thinking about my post each day and wondering what inspires me to be grateful that day has allowed me to extract more sweetness in my life. Happy, thank you more please!

I got to see a few people I had not seen for a while and with one of them, I said “I am happy to see you” with such effusion that I surprised myself. Being effusive is kind of weird. But at the same time, allowing myself to be effusive gives more depth to my life. I am grateful for giving myself permission to be effusive.