Tag: Gratitude

Grateful for old friends – gratitude week 4, 2008
Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold….

So this week I’m grateful for old friends, the friendships that grow deeper with time and don’t seem to suffer from neglect or distance.
- for Dina in New Jersey (pictured with me outside her parents home in Ohio in 1992, friend since probably 1989) who called late Friday evening to talk about a book she was reading. Wonderful to hear her voice, to rediscover some parallel threads in our lives and thoughts.
- for Heather in California, my first friend at college, met in 1988, and probably the most faithful and loyal friend I’ll ever have. She emailed “I’d like to come visit with my family and we’ve picked out some dates in August.” Knowing I’d be thrilled to host her, she took the initiative to start scheduling her visit.
- for Andy in Ann Arbor, known since 1993, who knew I’d love to visit a granite wholesaler in Wixom with him yesterday. We both marvelled at the astonishing variety of color, grain, pattern, flow in the granite slabs. A feast for the eyes.
January 27, 2008
Grateful for time alone – gratitude week 3, 2008

This past week my husband was overseas on business. He’s back now, I’m grateful for his safe return and the chocolate he brought, of course, but I’m also grateful for the time apart.

A Sailor’s Suitcase, originally uploaded by Bob AuBuchon.

I am grateful for the little pleasures of having the house to myself: sleeping diagonally across in the bed, using his pillow/invading his space, having the cat all to myself, for my clock dictating my schedule. I’m grateful for takeout food: Jerusalem Garden, Eastern Flame, Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Washtenaw Dairy.

I’m grateful for modern technology that means I can get his cell phone in Europe by dialing a local number. I’m grateful for the time difference: when I was upset and couldn’t sleep and it was 2AM and there was no one here to talk to, I was able to reach him in his morning in Europe. Not for long, but for a moment, and it was good.

I’m grateful because absence makes the heart grow fonder. We get enough time apart to miss each other a little bit, and it breaks our routine just enough we take each other a bit less for granted.

Folks at my office teased me that the “honeymoon must be over” since I didn’t rush home to greet him the moment his flight landed. He has always traveled for work, now less so than previously, but a week apart is normal enough for us. In fact, we both kind of like the first few days. It’s hard to explain, but for the two of us, that little distance is entirely required to maintain our equilibrium between independent and partnered, the rhythm of cyclic downtime and togetherness.

January 19, 2008
Grateful for the little things – gratitude week 2, 2008
This week, I’m grateful for the little things.
- Discovering the google maps “drag to change route” feature that let me ask it to take me to Depot Town via Washtenaw instead of I-94.
- Zingerman’s Bread. Every now and then I have this thought “what would I miss if I moved away from Ann Arbor.” The answer is: Zingerman’s bread. Paesano, rustic Italian, sourdough, sesame semolina. My next thought is typically, “well, go get some then!” Downtown Home & Garden is my most convenient place to pick it up.
- Not 100% so I’m also grateful for the peppermint, ginger, and white tea that I got from Janet for Christmas and that’s warming my throat right now, and I’m grateful for ibuprophen.
- I’m also grateful in advance for the sauna at Ann Arbor Yoga. Anticipating going there in a half hour. Yay!
January 13, 2008
Grateful for unexpected gifts – gratitude week 1, 2008

A new acquaintance at my meditation center handed me this rudraksha bead. Anu divided up a necklace that had been her grandmother’s, and she gave individual beads to members of a group of 20s-30s folks who meet in a sadhana circle once a month. She opened her purse to pull out a bag holding a set of beads, and this one fell out and rolled across the floor towards where I was sitting. It feels good around my neck.

A rudraksha bead is the seed from a plant that grows in the Himalayan foothills. By legend, the tree sprung up from the tears of Shiva, shed in compassion for the welfare of all. The seeds bring material and spiritual well-being. Rudraksha beads are typically used as prayer beads, in japa malas used in the repetition of a mantra.

I’ll wear this rudraksha pendant to remind me of my intention to be grateful. What better to remind me than an unexpected gift.

January 5, 2008
My intention for 2008: to live in gratitude

I made a resolution and an intention for 2008. The intention is the higher goal, the filter I’ll use to make decisions (“will this action/purchase/choice help me to live in gratitude?”). I would suppose that the resolution would be more along the lines of a tactic or an action plan. I made them in the right order (intention first, resolution second), though I am writing about them in backwards order.

My intention for 2008 is to live in gratitude. I’ve already started writing gratitude-themed posts (such as my post about the people that were my personal highlights of 2007). Gratitude makes my life better, some folks recognize it is as useful as meditation. Gratitude resets my mood by giving me practice in positivity, and it reminds me to embrace the people and the events and the things that matter to me, that make me happy. And embracing these things increases my connection to them, a happy spiral.

When I’m losing my mind, I withdraw. I’ve always done this. In high school I’d leave the table with my friends and go sit next to my locker, and like it. And after several days of this, I’d feel sad to be alone, neglected, and a bit resentful. Gratitude helps me break out of my self-imposed withdrawl.

When I’m losing my mind, I get critical of myself and of others. I want myself and others to be what we’re not, and in these moments I forget to appreciate all that I am, all that others are. Gratitude helps me reconnect to how things are, not how I want them to be.

So, I’ll be posting each week on gratitude to help me keep it in mind and to deepen my understanding of the practice.

January 5, 2008