Category: Gratitude
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Smiles Breaking Through…
I’ve been sharpening my sensory muscles to seek joy and beauty. Despite the worrisome, bothersome, and downright scary state of our current world, gladness peeks through, if we pay attention. Try this: look at your world right now, not focusing on anything. So many things beg for your eye’s gaze. Don’t think, don’t look, just…
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Enthusiasm…
Miriam Webster defines enthusiasm as “intense and eager enjoyment, interest, or approval.” Plus this archaic, derogatory meaning: “religious fervor supposedly resulting directly from divine inspiration, typically involving speaking in tongues and wild, uncoordinated movements of the body.” The Latin origin is “inspired or possessed by a god.” I recently read a quote comparing enthusiasm to…
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Dial Up…
I have a tiny journal in which I write a sentence each day in response to a happiness quote, reminding me to focus on the good. One recent prompt encouraged me to look at past experiences with a happy heart, to fill my life with joyous memories. Training your vision toward the smiles and laughs…
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A Letter to My Family and Friends…
My sister tells me I used to write poetry while she played piano. I remember sitting in my closet to read or write. It didn’t matter that they were silly little poems and stories. Later I wrote recaps of football games my dad watched. Didn’t every kid do that? No big deal. Easily dismissed, especially…
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What’s the Deal?…
My writing life is shifting from a fun way to spend some time to pinpointing focus to the best book only I can write. It means stacking hours upon hours, to the exclusion of many things. It means to believe so fully there is nothing else I’d rather do. It means to turn off the…
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Marvelous Multiplicity…
What if you were really good at one thing? What if it was at the exclusion of all else? Recent conversations have revolved around the frustration of being good at many things, but never the outlier. Can you relate? I challenge you to see the beauty of the world of multiplicity. Find a comfy spot…
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Thank You and Please…
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. One of the many things for which I am thankful is the community that reads, follows, subscribes, and comments on this blog. I write it for the pure of joy of putting thoughts on a page, exploring my own wanderings down an imaginary intellectual, mental or spiritual path. Writers write to share…
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Just Breathe…
When I am rankled by small everyday disturbances or overcome by world events, I remind myself to breathe. Just breathe. I use it as a prayer or meditation, repeating “Breathe in Peace, Breathe out Love.” Sometimes it takes a few cycles for me to believe it, but eventually the breath slows, my mind relaxes, and…
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Open to Your Path…
I attend writers’ conferences, online classes and zoom groups to learn layers and layers of craft techniques, and to build community. These time-consuming, money-spending, single-focusing events also connect me to my deep, creative soul. Last week I had one conference goal: to clearly discern my next step(s). In one master class, I was encouraged to…