Gratitude

8.15 am, 23.5.11.  Monday

 I have been thinking about gratitude again this past week, and remembering how I was using this blog as a gratitude journal, when I started nearly a year ago...  What happened?  I wonder?  I know that being grateful got more difficult somehow... or maybe it was the writing it down... in cyberspace that got more difficult.

I am grateful for people and events in my life, which have 'made a difference'... there are so many people.. How can I imagine that I am isolated and alone... as I so often feel?  My counsellor says that when I think of the things I'm grateful for, the key is to remember with my feelings and not just my mind... as that is all part of retraining the neural pathways towards positive thinking rather than negative.

 Another mentor and guide says that imagining a good experience, with all your senses, does the same thing to your brain as actually experiencing it...  Goodness me!

 I remember one of my early counsellor's suggesting that when I feel loved to relish that experience and hold on to it, and remember..."This is what it feels like to feel loved" (Yes, that was you HRF)...

 I am grateful today for these mentors and guides whose lives have impacted mine... in ways they can't even know about.
 I am grateful for the everyday friends, who show me through a word, a hug, a smile, an email, a phone call, a text message... that I do matter....  Something that I find really hard to hold on to.
 I am grateful for an opportunity to do some more drawing... and the challenge to be more creative and expressive in my drawing...
 I am grateful for the mystery of waiting between Easter and Pentecost...
 And I am grateful for a Nescafe Mocha in my big mug... for a morning drink to linger over and savour. :-)