Every day I get an email from my friend Carol Hinson.  It is a list.  The first part of the list is what she is grateful for.  The second part of the list is what she is attracting and manifesting.  Carol does not write a blog or have a website, but everyday she does this simple practice.  Many times I don’t know the specific people that she is referring to.  It doesn’t matter.  What I do get is her devotion in writing down and sharing her list every single day.

This morning I started reading Andrew Harvey’s book, The Hope:  A Guide to Sacred Activism.  In the first chapter he gives suggestions for ten things we can do right now to put ourselves on the path of being a spiritual activist.  The first  is to write down one thing that made you be grateful to be alive today.  The second is to write down ten things that you would say are sacred to you today.  His list for that day included cats.  Excellent, I thought.

I prefer the word appreciation to gratitude.  Gratitude has always felt a little sticky to me, with an overtone of the religious.  Appreciation feels clean and penetrable – like there is nothing in the way of fully drenching myself into the thing that I am appreciating.

So today I am especially appreciating Carol and her daily list and the fact that I receive it.  And here is my list of ten things that I would say are sacred today:

1. the iris and peonies in my garden (and other’s gardens)
2. my daughters
3. my wife Pam
4. the mockingbird outside my window all day
5. horses
6. dancing
7. the deep and variegated greens of the spring
8. Nepal, the birthplace of my daughters
9. the writings of Jon Katz
10. the poetry of Mary Oliver & Rumi

That’s ten.  I could go on.  But that is just today and tomorrow my list will be different in some ways, the same in others.  And I can’t leave without sharing this from Abraham:

Let your dominant intent be to feel good which means be playful, have fun, laugh often, look for reasons to appreciate and practice the art of appreciation. And as you practice it, the Universe, who has been watching you practice, will give you constant opportunities to express it. So that your life just gets better and better and better.