DAILY GRATITUDE ABILITY TO SMILE

 

Today I’m grateful I have a face

a place for my smile to wear…

and for all the people in my life

with the ability to keep it there

SO MANY SMILES

 

May we al be blessed as we travel trough this time and in this space

to have many people in our life who, 

when we think about them

bring a smile to our face

BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER

 

There are three distinct stages in any relationship that stand out undeniably.

Three phases of any connection we make with our pets, friends and family.

There is the time before we were blessed to know them…before they came into our life.

The time before partners, pets, children, grandchildren, friendships, a husband or a wife.

There is the time during which we know them..when in so many subtle ways

their love helps us navigate the world…as we change a little every day.

And there is the time after they are gone…

A time, if we stop to think about, we fear.

A time when, for whatever reason, in our life they’re no longer here.

Before is a hopeful stage…it’s like how in winter we anticipate the spring…

since we haven’t met them yet we have no idea what joy into our life they’ll bring.

During is an easy stage…as the two of us connect

as we build a relationship mixed with joy and sorrow…and mutual respect.

After is the most difficult stage!

Before…we never knew them.

During is filled with all the experiences we build our love and relationship on…

but we are only left with memories…after they are gone. 

I imagine the best we can do…

Is to fill our during with as much love as we can

with as much joy and happiness and laughter….

so we’ll have a host of wonderful memories

to fill up all our afters.

DAILY GRATITUDE MUSIC AND PLATO

 

Today I’m grateful for music and for Plato

to his words I often cling :

Music, he said, gives soul to the universe

Wings to the mind

Flight to the imagination

And life to everything…

POWER OF MUSIC

 

May we be blessed to understand music 

the way Pablo Casals understood music

Before this world we shall depart…

He believed:

Music is the divine way to tell beautiful

and poetic things directly to the heart

TAKE US HOME

 

In 1971, John Denver wrote Take Me Home Country Roads

and though in 1997 he passed away… 

I imagine he’d be smiling knowing his song is still being sung today.

Country Roads take me home 

to the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads

Country Roads came on the radio in the bookstore the other night

and I found there is still magic in John’s song…

when an older couple in the store began to sing along.

Then a younger couple, then a family with children began to sing along

for a moment it’s as if time had slowed…

and before I knew it everyone in the store, including me,

was singing take me home, country roads..

It was a spontaneous unplanned flash mob…

people of all colors, sizes and shapes…singing that chorus…that verse

and when the song was over we all smiled, nodded to each other

then happily dispersed.

There is a lot of discord in our country at this moment

and it was wonderful to hear and see…

together in the bookstore…this moment of harmony.

When cruelty and brutality become the norm…

When evil is spewing out lies and trying to re-write history

We need more moments when people come together to celebrate humanity.

This was a reminder as this evil works to separate and divide us

wherever we may roam…

together we are strong…we have each other 

Together…we can take each other home.

Country Roads take me home 

to the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads.

DAILY GRATITUDE UNDERSTANDING TIME

 

Today I’m grateful for understanding the importance of time

For it is my belief…my contention….

That whenever our children need it…

we should find the time

to give them our undivided attention.

LIKE PLANTING FLOWERS

 

May we be blessed to understand how raising children

is an awesome responsibility….every minute…every hour… 

and how the way we raise our children

is a lot like planting flowers…

We shower them with love

We offer them

our food

our water

our sun

But it’s only when they bloom we realize

what a good job we have done.

VOWS

 

We enter marriage with the best intentions that our heart and mind allows.

That’s why we put so much time and effort into the writing of our vows.

Why we vow to dedicate ourselves to one another in good times and in bad.

to cheer for each other when we’re happy and offer comfort when we’re sad.

To keep each other safe…to be kind, compassionate, understanding…to forgive…

To love honor and cherish each other for as long as we both shall live.

Wedding vows have been around since the 1500’s near as history can tell.

A tradition that, if it’s good enough for us should be good enough for our children as well.

When a child is born I think we should write then whisper parental vows into their ears…

and recite them over and over again as we all grow older through the years.

Something like:

I vow to keep you safe, to love you for who you are…to love you unconditionally…

to help you become the person you were created and meant to be. 

I vow to teach you all about love…to help your life be blessed

with kindness, honesty, respect…with health and happiness.

I vow to be there when you need me…through any valley low our mountain high

when you need an ear upon which to listen..or a shoulder upon which to cry.

I will do my best to make your life as wonderful as as can be

I vow to be patient with you as we grow and hope you’ll be patient with me.

I vow to be compassionate, understanding and supportive

to forgive when I need to forgive…

I vow to love, honor and cherish you…for as long as we both shall live.

If we can extend these vows from ourselves to our children from the moment of their birth…

image what the world would look like if we could extend these vows

to every child on the Earth.

DAILY GRATITUDE PEOPLE WHO GIVE

 

Today I’m grateful for people who help feed…

in any way…any person or being in need

and remind them

the person they help will never forget them…

for leaving them a little better off

than they were before they met them.

OUR GREATNESS

 

May we be blessed to understand…

for as long as we shall love and live…

our greatness is determined…

not by how much we have…

but by how much we give.

WHAT DO YO DESIRE

 

A question for everyone to think about…all peoples from coast to coast:

When it comes to the life you’re living…what do you desire most?

If your answer is money…all the money you can earn…

and never doing anything without getting something in return.

If this is what you desire…if this is your key to happiness…THEN

the mission of this poem is to make you think again.

To think about helping others…helping them to live, to laugh, to learn…

making no assumptions about them and asking for nothing in return.

When you see someone struggling and say, “Let me help you;!”

When you hold open a door…

When you feed a hungry person or animal…

When you give time and money to the poor.

You won’t get any richer…you won’t find fortune or fame…

and there’s a good chance those you help will never know your name. 

So what do you get when you help another being…

and, perhaps, your own pleasure you forgo?

More than you will ever see…and more than you will ever know.

You understand in that moment you’ve made the world

a little more beautiful than it was a moment before…

And as you witness another’s joy…and feel their love

you’ll want so see and feel that more and more.

When you stop to help someone without ever asking why…

you have just experienced something all the money in the world could never buy.

So I return to my original question…and once again inquire…

When it comes to the life you’re living…what more could you desire?