We sat quietly, taking cover from the desert sun, as the meditation began a storm blew through.

The Smell of Onions Unseen. A Healthy Body. The Colorful Mountains. A Safe Place.

We gathered.
We, who are all about gratitude, sat together.
We took cover from the dry desert sun in the shade, cooled by misters.
We gathered to practice gratitude together.
We each came from our own days. One said he was stressed. I had just been nervous, grumpy and complaining. One was worried about lightning. In short, we are human.
We sat and began our deep noticing. A meditation of mindfulness to be followed by a mindful walk. And as we began the weather shifted dramatically. Wind blowing. Rain pelting. The temperature cooled in an instant. I couldn’t help but laugh. But as quickly as the storm came, he left.
Leaving us with our gratitude.
The moisture that fell on the farm released so many rich smells for us to notice.
The clouds allowed us to open our eyes fully, no more squinting with the intense sun.
We noticed and noticed and noticed and noticed. With our eyes, our ears, our noses, our skin.
We found a safe place.
The place where the seeds are born.
The womb of the farm.
We smelled onions we didn’t even see.
We watched as the mountains shifted colors.
Then we returned to the shade to write of the gratitude we found. We filled white tags and blank pages with our gratitude. We wrote love letters to onions and our bodies.
Then we shared. Shared what we noticed. Shared what we are grateful for.
And with each share we learned more about each other.
And with each share their gratitude was an outstretched hand.
And with each share we said, “me too!” and our gratitude grabbed hold of theirs.
We uncovered an abundant well of gratitude.
Our little stack of tags and paper mere symbols of all of the gratitude that we knew in our hearts.
Together.

 

 

Happiness never decreases by being shared.
~Buddha

Think of a time you told someone what you were grateful for? What was that experience like?

LEARNING: One day this week I was really looking forward to rewarding myself with some junk food, taco burgers to be exact. But I didn’t finish before the restaurant closed. While I was practicing gratitude it was still on my mind. “Man, I wish I got there in time.” Then I did what I often do when I am ruminating on a complaint. I asked myself what I was grateful for about that. And I knew immediately that I didn’t really want junk food for dinner. I was grateful that I missed it. Because then I could cook and have a dinner that I felt good about.

FORGOTTEN GRATITUDE: Last week I was also grateful for so many amazing friends; My success is really all about my social network these days … Getting a reminder for a VITAL task I had completely forgotten … My self-imposed three day waiting period before taking the dogs to the vet.

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[su_note note_color=”#e7e7e7″ text_color=”#686767″ radius=”0″] My gratitude journey started in May 2011 and continues to this day. Thank you for being a part of it! A daily gratitude practice is simple. Write down three things you are grateful for each day. Download your free GratitudeGuide. My clients focus on gratitude and learn from their successes to make the positive changes they want in their lives. You can too. Call me to set up our first meeting 505.333.9336. [/su_note]