30 Days + of Gratitude ~ Day 28

New squash plants coming up in the garden!

1. I am grateful for the workshops I lead.  There are so many opportunities that arise before, during, and after the workshops for my awareness to be honed, both about myself and people, as well as specificity with intuition.  The depth of learning never stops.
2. I am grateful for living in an area that has so many walkable destinations nearby for just about anything.
3. I am grateful for my deepening fascination with and enjoyment of processes over end results.  Don't get me wrong, I still have a predilection for results.  However, especially since building and planting the garden last spring and moving through one growing season, my appreciation for what it takes to stick with the seeds of intention and focus long enough to produce a harvest has made a strong palpable shift that continues to reveal and reveal and reveal with more and more clarity each and every day.
4. I am grateful for dogs.  Having just walked in from a late dinner with a friend, post-workshop...I'm fresh from being with one of the most beautiful dogs a few tables away.  We locked eyes the moment I sat down, and couldn't stop looking at each other through the entire dinner.  In general, I find that dogs are so easy to connect with heart-to-heart, spirit-to-spirit.  The fear and resistance that most humans carry around intimacy seems mostly non-existent with dogs.  I eagerly await my first dog.  I try not to think about it to much, because it tugs on my heart in an achey longing way. There will be a time and a home that will be right for me to welcome in this companion, and I can't wait :)
5. I am grateful for my contentment with my home.  I'm coming up on 5 years in this apartment, and rarely does a day go by that I don't look around this place with huge appreciation and gratitude for it on so many levels.  While I do want a dog, and this building doesn't allow them, there's so much about this building and apartment that I deeply appreciate.  It is a home for me!

30 Days + of Gratitude ~ Day 16

1. I'm grateful today for the power of Faith. Like my garden, the more attention and nurturing I give it, the stronger it grows...and in turn, the more fuel I have with which to nurture it ever deeper.

2. I'm grateful for my Vita Mix blender...it's like a blender on steroids...most days I make an live smoothie made of some type of dark greens like spinach, fresh fruit like bright green Granny Smith apples which are lower in sugar, and fresh purified alkaline water (see #3 for more on this!)

3. I'm grateful for my water purifier/alkalizer. It gives me fresh clean living water without having to put used plastic water bottles into the ground, and needs next to know maintenance....not to mention the money I'm saving.

4. I'm grateful for the space in my schedule that this Holiday season is giving me to take my personal practices deeper than I remember going in the past, to hold a loving steady focus on releasing any and all attachments from the past that no longer serve the Truth of what I am and what I am here to demonstrate through how I walk through life.

5. I am grateful for the new shoots popping up all through my garden...they inspire me to open my heart wider each and every day, and to notice and have appreciation for all of the new growth being birthed within and all around me in the people I know and am meeting.

30 Days + of Gratitude ~ Day 6

1. I'm grateful for my Heart.  Despite years of being lodged in my intellect, it has been supremely patient with me, waiting for my readiness to trust the Love in my Heart and let it open.  
2. I'm grateful to my roof-garden.  In the 9 months since building and planting the garden, it has continued to teach me more than many of the hundreds of books I poured through over the years looking for secrets to happiness.  It teaches me about patience, faith, and trust.  It teaches me about the power of simple disciplines over time, how the small act of carrying water up to the roof each day pays off in bright splashes of green plants and shimmering flowers as the plants go to seed.
3. I'm grateful to live in a neighborhood that has nearly everything I need in walking distance.  I intend to walk more and drive less in 2010.
4. I'm grateful to We Care Spa in Desert Hot Springs for being a consistent home for this work on Mondays for over 2 1/2 years.
5. I'm grateful to Equinox Fitness on Sunset for being my gym, my church, my practice ground for everything I'm working on internally and physically.  Along with being a spectacular place to train my body, it continues to be an invaluable place to train my mind and attention as well.  I consider working out to be one of my main spiritual practices.  More than just the physical returns, all that can come up in my consciousness being surrounded by people from all walks of life, in all sorts of moods and dispositions, is fantastic fodder for my real actual in-the-moment work with myself and how I view myself and others.  It's a huge opportunity to practice neutrality, compassion, and open-heartedness regardless of the circumstances. 

Newly Built and Planted Garden Box

These are pictures of my newly planted Garden Box. It's 4'x4'x8"! Big thank you to my Dad and David Elliott for all the guidance on building materials and detailed teaching around setting it up!!! With each screw going in to the box, with each offering of sage, with each breath through the construction, soil-blending, planting of the first 3 plants, watering, and meditating on the garden I get more and more excited....feeling strong energy flows moving through my Awareness and body.....circulating through my heart and out through my hands. A couple of times last night the garden woke me up from sleep....I can feel it as a living relationship. I can tell that it has much to teach me about all of my relationships and cultivating the highest while engaging with patience, consistency, and LOVE. I'll post more pictures as the garden and I evolve together.