This post is dedicated to Kim Spillman (who took me at my word when I asked if she wanted to be my accountability buddy coming out of the retreat we just did).  How WERE we going to put our new learnings into practice, become better people, be stronger and happier and more determined, nourish our bodies, protect the weak, and fight the strong that don’t have our best interests at heart?

As it turns out, so many of the sessions we attended all week (be it written lessons, fitness classes, lectures, meditation, hikes, or creative expression) centred on gratitude, with a massive side helping of “being present”.

We’ve known for a while now we can literally rewire our brains, so why aren’t we doing it?  Just concentrating on what we are grateful for each day can kick off very powerful changes in the brain.  The first 5 things are obviously easy, but a few days in, I struggled to think of anything I was grateful for that day (after Evie, of course).  When teaching us this class, Hana Matt told me it could be anything: “I have 2 legs”, “I can see”, “I had soup for dinner”.  I’m know the lesson there is we have so much to be grateful for, we have no idea how bad others have it and we should be grateful ALL the time!

WE ARE THE 1%.  It most cases it isn’t our fault (and giving away every cent we have wouldn’t make much difference), but at least maybe we should have the good fucking grace to be grateful, and that we’re not dying of dysentery, or sold into child labour, or….

Kim sent me hers  one day, and reminded me to keep at it.  Anyway, here are my five for today.  What are yours?

I am grateful for:

1. Evie, my family in England, and my chosen family of friends in San Francisco.  (Sorry, I know I just lumped a lot of people together but I am only supposed to list 5 things and I need to get going!)
2. I reached out to one of the teachers from my retreat, and she returned the email! I can’t wait to meet up with her again 🙂
3. I’m grateful that Trevor can be Evie’s “manny” this month (and that Steve was able to do it last month).  A public post probably isn’t the best place to thank you properly, but I will never forget you helping us out in a pinch.
4. Paul and Ricci.  I’m running out of room so I will say Paul for being Evie’s wonderful father and for loving her.  I am grateful for him in her life.  I trust him with her so much that I am completely comfortable leaving her with him (for work, or so I can go to a retreat and try and get my shit straight and access what is important in this world, outside of video games and house woos).  And Ricci, I had no idea how much we were going to miss you until you left!
5. My health.  All in all, I am relatively healthy.  This old body keeps getting me through life.  Kidneys seem fine, my hormones seem to have stabilized since I stopped breast-feeding, although I am sure they are misfiring as I become perimenopausal – LOL!   I haven’t had a drink in over 6 weeks- and all in all, things could be much worse!

I bought myself a gratitude journal, so I am going to try and keep this up.  Don’t worry, I won’t post them all!  LOL!