GRATITUDE

Sitting on a shelf above my computer is this jar.  It began life as a pickle jar and now it holds slips of paper.

Each day I write something that I am grateful for and slip it into the jar. Mostly my gratitude for the day is something small, something that I normally don't think about but just accept as if it was mine. 

Pausing to be grateful is a gift in itself and I shall happily tamp down these small gratitudes as each day passes.

"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings." - William Arthur Ward

"Consider Bliss"

These little winged ones continue to remind me that life is about more than getting up in the morning and moving through my day.  There is wonder and celebration and even bliss.  

That word bliss - meaning lightness of heart; blitheness, glad joy of heaven - is actually, a complicated word. Is it something BIG that impacts my every so often?

Or is it an everyday companion, much like this gentle doll.  My days are filled with so many good things that giving thanks becomes routine.  Perhaps being fully aware and giving 'thanks' are the forms bliss takes in my life.  

"Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss." - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Time Passes...

...and hasn't it been fun!!!  Tuesday, September 1st was  my 6th year blog anniversary.  When I look back it seems like a long time ago that I took heart in hand and went 'public'.  I was beading then but if you've come along for the ride all these years you know how much (and many times) that has changed.  

I thank each and every person who has given up a few minutes of their time twice a week to stop in for a visit.

There are some who have become quite good friends.  You know who you are and please know how very much your long-distance friendship means to me.  

Each reader has  given me a window to the world -- to your world and to your wonderful art and craftsmanship.  

So here's to another six years -- of fun, frolic, imagination, creativity, and success in whatever WE all take your hands to.

"Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend." - Theophrastus

A Core of Joy

What is this gift I've been given?  What is this thing that resides within my heart and fills me to the brim?  Its JOY and there is no other word for it.  I'm not sure where it comes from and I'm never sure where it will take me.  I'm not even sure if it will be with me tomorrow or the next day or the next day.  But while its here -- I intend to enJOY it as much as possible.  I will savor it to its fullest and to be ever so very grateful that it has chosen me in which to rest.

"The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." - Christopher McCandless

Today I am thankful for...

Blueberries, in a white bowl every morning!

I'm thankful that there even is something as wonderfully scrumptious as this.  I'm thankful for the fact that due to technology (meaning freezers) I can eat them year round.

I am thankful for the farmers and their laborers who plant these bushes, care for these bushes and pick my berries for me all through the season.

"I love berries.  Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, black berries,

 anything with an 'errie' in it!" - Jordin Sparks

Thanks and more thanks

 

 

 

My thankfulness for the wonderful world I find myself in these days is boundless.  I can't even count the many blessings that I have around me and within me.  How wonderful to be at a time of life when being thankful is a daily, positive process.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone -- so many of you have become very special to me and I hope to 'meet' even more of you in the coming year.

 

 

"If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. - Gerald Good