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Today I am grateful for another opportunity to align with who I want to be.  Reminders for when we get off track can come from the strangest places, but when we see them, we need to be mindful and pay attention to the message.  I’m grateful to receive that message.

Today I am grateful for the time to focus on things I need for myself.  I have felt myself wildly pulled in a million directions this week and it’s only getting more intense as the holidays approach.  Today I’m taking the time to focus on my writing and to focus on decorating the house.  I LOVE doing that and I get to share the experience with my son.  I’m so excited.

Today I am grateful for the games I played with my son.  We started a little family game night and seeing his face light up as we spent time together filled my whole heart to the brim.  We didn’t play by any rules, I just let him try what he wanted to and he loved it.

Today I am grateful for the reminder of the importance of humility.  It isn’t the accolades or other attention that matters.  It’s about the results and what works for us as individuals.  It isn’t about achieving a certain status- it’s about doing our parts and sharing our messages.

Along with humility, today I am grateful for the ability to apologize.  Being wrong isn’t an easy pill to swallow at the best of times, but to dig your way through the dirt and layers of bullshit you’ve fed yourself for years and to own up to your part in the issue is some of the hardest work you’ve done.  Simply saying sorry can shift the entire story—so do the work no matter how hard it is.

Today I am grateful for the reminder of what is really important in life.  Beyond being who we are meant to be, beyond keeping humble as we work toward our goals, beyond WORKING for our goals, it’s important to love the life we have and to live in the moment.  It’s important to be present in the moment.

Today I am grateful for kitty love.  As I (struggle 😊) to type this, I have two of my three cats vying for my attention.  My Maine coon has won and he is sitting in my lap accepting the occasional head scratches while I type over him.  I wouldn’t move him for anything.

Today I am grateful for help.  I have a lot of work to do and I want to be successful and I am not able to do it alone.  I am grateful for the time I have to work on my projects and to do the things I love doing.  I am grateful for the people who help me get things done and allow me to do the work I need to do.

Today I am grateful for the reminder of who I really am.  Embracing that person is the most liberating thing I’ve done.  Falling into old habits is inevitable—getting out of them is your choice until you are fully aligned and in a state of being your authentic self.

Today I am grateful for another day.  I’m happy that I have the chance to start over again today and to enjoy everything that I am meant to experience.  I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to realign myself and keep working toward my goals.

Today I am grateful to not feel rushed.  I feel content to just be where I’m at.  I know what needs to be done, but I feel content to do things at my pace rather than at the pace of “I need to get this done.”  I am happy to just be.

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Today is a day that has been mired throughout history.  I wish to reclaim it for what the intent is: a day of thanks and gratitude.  A day of sharing and love.  Of togetherness and joy.  I feel so incredibly fortunate to have spent this day with my family enjoying our time together and eating delicious food, sharing memories and expressing our happiness.  It was truly a day of remembering the reasons we all came together in the first place and letting all of the nonsense pass.

I feel doubly blessed because after an amazing afternoon with family, we were able to spend our evening with our friends as well.  Laughter filled the room as we had conversation, watched the kids play, and ate some more 😊.  I consider my family incredibly blessed to have so many loving people to share the day with and to have had the opportunity to have made so many memories.  I feel blessed to be able to express the love I feel to so many people.  I feel even more blessed to share these events with my son and to teach him what life is really about.

One last blessing that I feel unbelievably grateful for today is the ability to share these gifts as a little reminder to whomever reads this message.  It’s a reminder that we move forward and heal with the small things.  Too often we are caught up with looking for the big goal that we disregard the moments in front of us.  It is so important to cherish each moment we are given because the big moments all come from the momentum of the small moments.  We don’t get where we are going without being where we are right now.  It is the action that comes from our present sense of self that creates the future we are looking for.

So on this Thanksgiving day, enjoy.  Love.  Appreciate what you have.  Love the family you were born with or the family you made or the family you adopted or the family that took you in.  Love where you are.  Love where you are going.  Love everything that is what you are.  Be grateful for it all.  If you can’t be grateful for what you have, be grateful for what you are building.  Remember that there is always more to be grateful for than there is to be bitter about.  Today is a day to focus on the blessings whether they are big or small.  Count them all and be happy.  Happy Thanksgiving, all.

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Today I am grateful for progress.  I’ve been guilty of holding on to too many things, physically and emotionally for my entire life.  I’ve held onto the emotional in hopes that things would be different or that people would realize their “errors” and apologize.  I’ve held onto physical things in hopes of having use for the items once again and in an effort to relive past happy events.  My husband and I have been working our way through our house for weeks now and I am finally seeing the result of our efforts.  It has been a lot of work (entirely of our own creation) but it is so comforting as we eliminate and purge and organize.

Today I am grateful for opening possibilities.  As we cleanse and let go of the things that no longer serve, I feel so many things opening up.  It is truly cathartic to let go of the excess.  The excess weight, the burden, the chaos.  Getting rid of those things makes me feel lighter and more able to adapt and move to the new paths opening up.

Today I am grateful for recognizing paths I do want to take.  Going through a lifetime of things and prioritizing what we want to keep makes decisions easier.  I have spent so much time holding onto what once was in an effort to keep possibilities open, but I have learned that sometimes it’s easier to let go of what isn’t serving you in the moment.  That can offer the clarity of what you need, and what you want to focus on.  It can take you right where you want to go.  All you have to do is let go.

Today I am grateful for health.  We’ve been feeling a bit under the weather this weekend but it seemed to pass quickly.  Even though it was a mild cold, it was enough to knock us out for all of Saturday and render it useless.  We were able to get moving today and it felt good.

Today I am grateful for the week coming up.  It’s not just because it’s Thanksgiving week, it’s about what it stands for.  I have never subscribed to the traditional history of Thanksgiving on a personal level, but I have always taken it to heart.  At its core, it’s about gratitude.  It’s as simple as that.  If you’re thankful for something, share that message.  It doesn’t have to be anything big, just the act of sharing something that makes you happy is infectious.  We need more reminders today about what there is to be grateful for—because there is a heck of a lot more to be grateful for than there is to be angry about.

Today I am grateful to be me.  This year, I feel like I am becoming more of who I am and I am no longer afraid to share who that is.  There is no reason to hide any of who we are. There is no reason to be afraid.  It’s time to enjoy the ride.

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Today’s card was “When I’m grateful for what I have, I can feel good along the way to what I desire” Gabby Bernstein, Super Attractor Deck.  Another perfectly timed card as I spent a lot of today thinking about what I am grateful for.  I had been feeling some frustration with how things are shaping up (in general) and it made me pause.  I didn’t like the feeling of being trapped in a negative loop so I immediately started thinking of what I was grateful for.

I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn in my role.  Even though I’m not taking the project exactly where I want it to at this moment, I am learning how to deal with setbacks beyond my control.  I am also learning when it is appropriate to push my case and when to step back.  It’s a lesson in using experience to judge what is best for the overall outcome rather than merely pressing my point.

I am grateful for opportunities to practice redirection and how to gracefully go with the ever-changing course of things.  For so long the most important thing was making my opinion known and forcing people to see that my ideas for progress were the right ones.  It’s nice to take a step back and see the alternatives rather than being set in a rigid path.

I am grateful for help teaching my kid and for help making sure that he is always loved.  His caregivers definitely take the time to show him new experiences and they ALWAYS take the time to give him a little extra love during the time I’m away from him.  He is learning to be more independent under their guidance.

I’m grateful for the chance to listen to what my body and mind need.  I’m fortunate enough to have the time to pause when things get overwhelming and to take stock of where I’m at and take care of my needs.  If I need a minute to regroup, I am able to do that.  It’s nice to recenter and look at an issue with fresh eyes.

I’m grateful for friendship and surprise visits!  It lets me know that people think of us and that it doesn’t take much to let people know you care—or to feel cared for.  It’s nice to feel connection when you’re a little scattered and to have someone to bounce ideas off of.  Just someone to pass the time and someone you find you have more little things in common with.

I’m grateful to be able to share these little reminders of things to be grateful for.  It’s so easy to get swept up in our problems that we lose sight of how many things are going well.  It’s a powerful step to learn how to look at the good in everything and to remember to look for the good in the middle of a storm.

I love the life I have and the fact that this has given me the chance to start building the life I want.  Sometimes it isn’t about the end result—it’s about being happy for each achievement along the way and understanding that each small victory is a step toward the goal.  We wouldn’t throw away a raw diamond because it hasn’t been polished.  We shouldn’t throw away what we have in front of us simply because it isn’t doesn’t look like what we are hoping for.

It’s ok to feel joy for the little things.  Brene Brown speaks of forboding joy and how we can be distracted with worry for losing something we love or that things will go wrong that we miss out on the good that is happening right now.  Something good happening doesn’t mean that something bad has to happen as some kind of cosmic balance.  Joy doesn’t require pain to be felt, and the more we allow ourselves to feel that, the more we can experience what brings us joy without holding back.  Feeling good only brings what we desire even faster.  So relish it and welcome the joy with open arms and know that what you want is coming your way.

I awoke this morning feeling a little rushed.  There was a gorgeous sunrise that I wanted to get pictures of, the dog needed to go out, the cats needed to be fed, I knew my son would be waking up soon…a normal morning in all honesty.  But I felt the creative urge pulling at me and I knew I needed to get out and walk to get the pictures that I wanted.  So I took the dog out, fed the cats, grabbed the camera and LEFT! I didn’t care that I left my husband with our son—they were in bed anyway—I didn’t feel guilty about the million things that need to be done around the house including laundry, meal prep, organizing toys, clearing off the junk on the table, finishing cleaning the garage, showering, and a baptism for good measure.  I listened, I walked, and I got the photos I needed.  And I felt good.

After I got back from my walk, the card I pulled from the Super Attractor deck was “When I make joy a priority, brilliant ideas will come naturally, support will surround me, and movements will form.”  The truth is I have never felt more connected to what I want to do with my life than in the moments when I am taking action on what I want to do.  This isn’t a revelatory statement, I know, but it is a nice reminder that sometimes we have to let our creativity free and just do what feels right in the moment and not worry about the future.  It is in those moments when we are connected with source and we are fulfilling our purpose.  We are so trained to do what we are “supposed” to do that it can feel uncomfortable honoring what we want.  But the latter is infinitely more rewarding.

Today I am grateful for listening to my gut and honoring what my heart wanted to do this morning.  I easily could have fallen into the usual pattern of jumping into the things I needed to do, but I knew I needed some time to turn off the “gotta do” brain and just do what I wanted to.

Today I am grateful for taking action toward building a future that I want.  Making peace with what I know I am meant to do and doing what I need to do feels like the next step.  Often when we are in transition it is easier to take the path of least resistance and repeat old patterns.  It takes a strong will to stick with what you know is right for you in spite of what people tell you, you should be do.

Today I am grateful for gorgeous sunrises.  Seeing those colors light up the sky is a nice reminder of both how small we are and how it’s important to let our inner light shine too.

Today I am grateful for continued synchronicity.  The simple reminder to make joy a priority after I had already made that decision is truthfully the only validation I am looking for.  The universe saying, “You’ve got this.  Take it one step at a time.  Go with what feels right.”

Today I am grateful for making better decisions.  The last couple of days I hadn’t been feeling myself both physically and emotionally—my brain felt foggy, I wasn’t eating right so my stomach was off as well.  Today is about listening to what my body needs, what my heart is asking for, and what my soul is telling me is right.  I feel the improvement almost immediately.

Today I am grateful to have the opportunity to share this.  I’ve often thought that in order to make in impact on the world you needed to take large, dramatic steps.  Sometimes the biggest impact can come from simply listening to yourself and sharing your truth.  The biggest impact comes from sharing your authentic self.  Souls recognize truth in another without saying a word.  When we are in alignment with our own purpose, there is no better feeling, and that truth flows freely into the world.  That is what makes an impact.

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So after I just published that last piece, I drew another Gabby Bernstein Super Attractor card and it was “I can decide today to recalibrate my energy and commit to love and joy.”  I believe that this was a little nod from the universe saying that impatience is a choice and that I have to think long and hard about what my reactions are from now on.  The beautiful thing is that I can choose love and joy over impatience.  If the universe is powerful enough to create that kind of synchronicity, then that is something to pay attention to.

I mentioned feeling like a failure in the last piece and that is because I truly am hard on myself especially when I react negatively.  I feel it in my stomach as a lead pit every time I yell over something.  I feel out of control when I yell or when my emotions are so big I let them explode everywhere.  It makes me feel like a bad person.  I know I am human and we all do things we aren’t proud of.  So I guess I am lucky that this is something in my life that is entirely fixable.  It is very uncomfortable, but if I want to get to where I want to be, it is a process I need to go through.

This too is another practice—and practice I must.  I don’t want my child thinking I am some horrible monster or that he is worthless because I can’t handle his meltdowns and I yell.  I want to honor his personality and his creativity and let him know that he IS loved for who he is.  So I will use that as motivation for tonight, in addition to breathing, I am going to recalibrate my mind and focus on love.  Thank you, universe for the signs that we all have the power to make things better.  Any mindset can change as long as you are committed to changing it.  So, deep breath, deep love, and an open mind.  Here’s to recommitting to love and joy.

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Today I am grateful for partnership.  My husband and I worked for hours today cleaning and organizing the house and my entire physical space OPENED up.  I felt such a deep connection to this man as we worked our way through mountains of old boxes, clothes, toys, electronics, and garbage because we were working toward the same goal: cleaning out the old and making way for the new.  We knew what had to go and we LET IT GO.

Today I am grateful for release.  Knowing that the things I am giving up creates a way for the new to enter my life and make it more of what it is meant to be is a beautiful sense of calming.

Today I am grateful for the reminder of how blessed I truly am.  Going through things that we no longer use and are now able to share and give to other people, made me open up and realize that parting with these things isn’t necessarily a sad moment, but a beautiful one.

Today I am grateful for my toddler’s constant reminders of the things he wants to do.  While we weren’t able to accommodate all of them, it was a nice moment to observe someone so connected and attuned to their desires and their ability to express them.  There is no need to send mixed signals or to hide what it is that we need; Speak your truth, your need into existence.  If what you think needs to happen doesn’t happen, look at what is going on around you and follow the signs that are being shown to you.

Today I am grateful for the ability to meal prep healthy, full meals for myself and my family.  I know I will have healthy breakfasts and lunches for the whole week.  I saved money by preparing rather than buying.  I saved myself a ton of time in the morning by not having to rush around and try to figure out what I’m eating for the day.

Today I am grateful to spend time working on what I really love doing and I am grateful for following my path.  I’m proud of the steps I’ve taken to create the life I want.  It feels surreal but the more action I take toward the life I want, the more I see it opening up.  The more I feel it opening up.  The more I feel myself becoming who I am meant to be.

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Another weekend coming to an end, another day to be grateful.

Today I am grateful for animal snuggles because they are alive and healthy and constantly remind me of what it means to love unconditionally.

Today I am grateful for being able to treat my son to a little extra toy so he knows I am thinking of him and I am paying attention to the things he enjoys.  This is also about the ability to spread some joy by spending $10 on my child.  No, money isn’t the only way to show him I care, but I am grateful to be able to use money as energy and to share that with my child.

Today I am grateful to see the new holiday decorations in the store because it reminds me that we are entering an amazing season. A time of reflection, love, winding down, restoration, time spent with family, amazing food, cozy nights on the couch (with blankies, books, and my family), warm clothes, sharing, giving, and joy.

Today I am grateful to hear the signals my body is giving me.  I had a million things to do around the house—I’m really driving to get everything organized and purged this fall—and my body simply wasn’t having it.  I felt exhausted and drained.  Quite frankly everything felt like too much effort.  So I listened to my body and took an hour long nap.  After I woke up I read a horoscope that said to go easy on myself today and to listen to my body—I have done enough.  While that was hard to believe in the middle of the chaos that is currently my home, I appreciated it because it was a synchronicity with the universe.  I felt I needed to rest, I listened.

Today I am grateful for delicious comfort food.  I made a huge batch of chili in the crock pot yesterday and it proved to be the perfect meal for tonight.  YUM!!

Today I am grateful to breathe, take in my surroundings, and acclimate.  It was daylight savings time today so it’s now dark by 5:00.  This isn’t something that I used to have issues with until the last few years.  But it’s a sign of the changing season here and that means that I’m changing too.

Today I am grateful to find a new home for things that will be loved by someone else.  Clearing away honestly feels refreshing.  It’s a start to a long process and I’m happy to have begun the undertaking.  Sometimes the first step is the hardest, especially when it comes to sentimental attachment to things.  A side note to this one, I’m grateful for the memories those things evoke and the love I feel because they remind me of my child and it makes me happy to see how much he has grown in (almost) 3 short years.

Today I am grateful for being one step closer to where I want to be in life and to see all of the work I have been putting in pay off.

You always hear how difficult it is to change your mindset or your way of life, and it is important to remember to persevere.  We often don’t realize how close we are to a breakthrough.  I had several moments today when my entire world felt off kilter and I had to remind myself a million times in those moments that all is ok—this is nothing I can’t handle.  No one has the manual on how to live our lives and we are all just doing our best.  That includes me.  So I need to relax some of my expectations and just take it as it comes.  And continue to remember to be grateful.  Happy Sunday Evening..