Tag Archives: appreciation.

May25

appreciation

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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.

 

 

 

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Mar16

trouble shooting

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Yesterday on my drive to see Nelson the Mustang, I found myself checking for trouble.  Scanning my mental horizons to see what trouble was lurking.  I noticed that it felt  like checking to make sure it was all still there, my little piles of trouble. “Isn’t that interesting,” I thought.  My trouble piles are the things that I have a habit of worrying about.  Money, health, safety, money, my daughters, the world, money.

Nelson is a stallion, and he poops in big “stud piles” around his field.  They are his way of delineating territory, and he goes around and sniffs them from time to time to see if they need refreshing.  I realized that my trouble piles are like that:  I go and sniff them from time to time to see if they need refreshing.  “Have I been worrying about this thing lately?  Does it need a fresh worry?”

What I see is that I am habitually pointing myself at what I don’t want instead of looking around for the things that I can appreciate, the things that are nourishing and playful.  I know this old habit, but thought I had pretty much cleaned it out.  As it turns out it has just gotten a little more elusive, a little harder to detect.

The key was that as I was driving, I was feeling a little edgy, a little anxious, instead of welcoming the astonishing sunny beauty of the day and the gorgeous upstate New York scenery I was traveling through.  Once I felt the feeling, then I started looking for things to enjoy.  Simple things, easy things.  Distracting myself from the trouble piles.  Like looking for the shafts of sunlight, instead of the dark shadows.

If all you did was just look for things to appreciate you would live a joyous, spectacular life. If there was nothing else that you ever came to understand other than just look for things to appreciate, it’s the only tool you would ever need to predominantly hook you up with who you really are. That’s all you’d need.   — Abraham

And just a reminder:

Breaking into Blossom:  the eBook is available for purchase.  Thanks to all of you who have purchased!

And I still have a couple one-to-one jump-start  creative living  FREE coaching sessions available.  To make an appointment for a free call, either email me or fill out my form.   

Feb2

perfection

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Photo:  Pam White

Nothing needs to be fixed. Everything is unfolding perfectly. So when you stand in your now accepting that all is well, then from that vibration, you become surrounded by more and more evidence that all is well. But when you’re convinced that things are broken, that there is pollution, or that things have gone wrong, or that the government is doing conspiracies… then what happens is you get caught up in that vibration, and you begin to manifest that kind of stuff, and then you say, “See, I told you that things were going wrong.”

— Abraham, Excerpted from the workshop in North Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, March 7th, 2000

I got this in my inbox from Abraham last week.  It sums up pretty perfectly what I have been practicing.  Appreciation and being ok with what is here now.  To not focus on what I don’t want to bring home with me.

Two nights ago I started to read a story in the New Yorker.  It was about the Rutgers student who committed suicide because of online bullying.  I read less than one sentence, and then closed the magazine.  I know about it and that s enough – more than enough.  I don’t need to explore it.

The same thing goes for the pre-election scuffling, posturing and ranting.  There is really nothing there for me.  I will probably work for the candidate of my choice, but I will be looking to frame things in an expansive, positive way, rather than getting caught up in the fear-rage muck.

I realized a while back that there are certain chronic vibrations/mind states that are very hard to shift.  The scarcity mentality is one of those. If I am convinced that there will never be enough, there certainly will not be enough.  If I cannot feel my way toward a sense of plenty, then that fullness cannot find me.

So here is what I do.  I do not focus there.  I pet a dog/cat/horse or put on some music and dance, or drink a lovely cup of tea, have lunch with my honey or watch a movie.  That kind of distraction is a very good strategy for creating a feeling of appreciation, which is where the good stuff can find me, every time.

 

 

Jan19

taxi wisdom

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I was in New York City today for the third time this week.  It was cold and dark when I caught the 6:50 train.  I had brought some editing and got into a fabulous focus flow with my two seatmates who were both buried in their Kindles.

The train was delayed by 40 minutes, and I was walking fast when a taxi unloaded its passenger right in front of me, so I flagged him down.  He was a lovely Sikh gentleman, and because I have a long and deep relationship with India and Nepal, we began to talk.

He said what a beautiful day it was.  How many people do not notice the beauty of the day and the simple pleasures of the sun and just being alive.  He talked about people living in India who seem often so much happier even though they are poorer by far.   He talked about spirit and appreciation and happiness pretty much for the whole trip, which was not long, and I felt pretty blissful by the time we reached my destination.

As I got out of the taxi, I realized that I had just experienced a rampage of appreciation.   Have a listen.