Grateful for Crayons

No matter how you say it, Cray-ons or Crowns, there's something special about those waxy sticks of color that brighten anyone's day. I remember a little lesson my Mom taught me and I don't know if she applied it to real life, or if it's something I did through the influence of others, but it's a valuable lesson nonetheless.

There I sat, with my HUGE box of crayons, you know, the snazzy one with the sharpener built into the back. Sooo mysterious, so....technologically advanced, for a five year old at least. There I sat with my box of 64 crayons minus one. The last crayon that needed to be placed in the box was in the death grip known as my left hand. I tried jamming, cramming, stuffing, shoving, forcing that blue crayon into the box and it was NOT going in.

My mom immediately stepped in and showed me a trick. She took the crayon from my hand and had me relax. Then she showed me how to jiggle the box around so that the crayons would find their natural order. "There, now try it, but be gentle." I took my blue crayon and slipped it in with the other 63 crayons with ease. HA...how simple.

I'm grateful that my mother showed me how to make things happen. I rarely get the results I want when I force something to happen. If I just wait for things to find their natural order, I can get exactly what I want without all of the extra effort. I'm grateful for crayons and I'm grateful for all of the things they teach us. So today, I'll color OUTSIDE of the lines a little, let my creative juices flow, and remember to never force the crayon into the box

Grateful for Four

The pagans appreciate the importance of the number four with their four stages of life. There's four seasons, four elements, and a lot of other important things that come in fours.

My favorite thing that is four, is children when they're four. (I've typed four so many times its starting to look weird) They have no inhibitions, no censors, they tell you what's on their mind with harsh honesty. I wish I had a four year old to stand at my door every day before I go to work. He/She might say, "Your shirt looks wrinkly." or "Your hair looks silly."

What happens to us after we graduate from four? Do we all of the sudden start caring about what other people think? Do we start accepting social "norms" to please our parents?

I get to work in a lot of schools so I'm always getting to appreciate the little ones. Their artwork....amazing, if I could I'd buy it and put it all over my house. The way they run and smile and just really don't give a crap about anything is inspiring. Today I was standing in a gymnasium with my hands and arms full and this little girl ran straight into me, she was soooo excited to start gym class that she wasn't even looking where she was running. Why can't we get THAT excited anymore? I want to run into random people because I'm so excited to start doing something. I want to almost pee my pants when I get a treat. I want to giggle hysterically at a joke that doesn't even make sense (Sister was always good at that one tehee.)

Even if I can't get back to my inner four year old (I'm working on it though) I'm glad there's other four year olds running around reminding us of what's really important, it usually involves sugar and playing outside

Grateful for Emerson

"Some of the hurts you have cured, and the sharpest you still have survived. But what torments of grief you've endured, from evil which never arrived!"

Emerson said this, and this is becoming one of my favorite quotes. When a friend of mine was visiting, he was so good at living in the NOW and not worrying about the past or future. I'm finding that the less I worry about the future, the better the future becomes.

Really, what reasons are there to worry about something that may or may not happen. And really, what is GUARANTEED to happen? Not much of anything, really. So why is so much grief spent on worrying about bills, or relationships, or promotions.

I'm grateful that the future I paint is rarely what actually happens. If that were the case, doom and gloom would be prevalent wayyyy to much and there wouldn't be as many fun times as there really are.

I'm grateful that I have less stress because I'm not worrying about other people, and even more importantly, I'm not worrying about myself.

Grateful for Waiting

Over the past few months I've been learning that life is like a handful of warm spaghetti noodles. HA! When you first stick your hand into that warm bowl or pot of noodles (depending on your spaghetti strategy I guess) you have a knot of noodles. They're tangled in on themselves and with each other, it really looks like you've got a mess. Slowly but surely though, most of those noodles will start to untangle themselves, and straighten out as they slip out of your grip.

Sometimes everything feels like it's piling up, everyone wants responses, everyone wants answers...NOW. It can get a little hectic at times.

I thought that responding to a problem likity-split was a good thing, was a sign that I was a good employee or human being. Sometimes stepping away and removing ourselves from the situation for a day or two is the alternative solution. Maybe some of that is having the humility to admit that there is nothing we can do to solve a problem, that it's out of our hands.

As winter approaches I've been feeling more and more like I'm losing my grip. I get impatient waiting for certain events to take place. But when we take a step back, relax, and wait. . . we can catch our breath and see everything untangle right before our eyes.

Grateful for Crisis

Some say that the chinese character for the word, "crisis" is two symbols. One symbol represents danger while the other symbol represents opportunity.

As humans we are constantly dealing with crisis'. It's what we live for. Could you imagine life without crisis? Perhaps its a small crisis, "What will I eat today?" or maybe its a big crisis, "How will I survive this?" Without crisis, life would be torment, life would be non-existant.

In the english language, "crisis" is often used in a negative sense. I am grateful for crisis though. The danger in our lives is what presents opportunity for growth, for movement, for change. Without these things we wouldn't progress. So I started thinking about the "crisis'" in my life last year. I made a mental list of all of the things that were stressing me out, or considered "dangers." Then I realized that each one of those crisis' opened up doors and opportunities. Think about your current situation. Were you forced to make uncomfortable decisions that later brought you to a better situation overall?

Without these little, "Uncomforts" in our life, we aren't forced to move. My mom used to always say, "This is going to be uncomfortable so that you dont forget" when she would punish me for doing something I shouldn't have. In a way, that is how crisis is in our life. It puts us to the point where we are just uncomfortable enough to make a change in our life. So bring it on Crisis, give me your best shot, show me where to go next!

Grateful for Generosity

Of course it is always nice to receive gifts, material or not. To feel that Generosity from someone else is truly a gift in itself. Just knowing someone was thinking about you, or someone cares about you is a warming feeling.

Generosity isn't just based on what's in your bank account, but instead, includes the pure intentions of looking out for common good and giving from the heart.

I've realized that whenever we feel drained or low, Generosity can build us back up. Whether it be Generosity with things, time, energy or most importantly Love, I'm grateful that the only way to make MYSELF more powerful, is to help someone else build their strength as well. Generosity brings perfect balance to the universe because when we give, we receive tenfold, which only makes us want to give more.

So today, I will try to meditate on all of the different ways others have been Generous towards me, and brainstorm all of the ways I can show Generosity to every person I encounter. Can you make a list of the random kind acts that have been bestowed upon you only to change your day for the better? I focused on random surprise acts of generosity. . .

The time a stranger:

~Let me go first in the grocery line.

~Smiled.

~Gave me a parking space.

~Paid for my coffee.

~Gave me a compliment.

~Opened the door.

~Pushed my car to the gas station.

~Gave me a ride home.

See each kind act as a blessing and remember that there is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.

Grateful for Kisses

First, last, long, short, butterfly, Eskimo, sloppy dog, chocolate.

No matter what kind, or how good they are, they say so much.

Here's 10 reasons to be grateful for kissing:

1. Those who kiss their partner goodbye each morning live five years longer than those who don't.

2. Kissing is great for self-esteem. It makes you feel appreciated and helps your state of mind.

3. Kissing burns calories. 2-3 calories a minute can double your metabolic rate. Research claims that three passionate kisses a day (at least lasting 20 seconds each) will cause you to loose an entire extra pound! It's time to start that kissing diet.

4. Kissing is known as a stress reliever. Passionate kissing relieves tension, reduces negative energy and produces a sense of well being, lowing your cortisol, "stress hormone."

5. Kissing uses 30 facial muscles and it helps keep the facial muscles tight, preventing baggy cheeks! the tension in the muscles caused by a passionate kiss helps smooth the skin and increases the circulation.'

6. Kissing is good for the heart, as it causes an adrenaline rush which causes your heart to pump more blood around your body. Frequent kissing has scientifically been proven to stabilize cardiovascular activity, decrease blood pressure and cholesterol.

7. Those who kiss quite frequently are less likely to suffer from stomach, bladder, and blood infections.

8. During a kiss, natural antibiotics are secreted in the saliva. Also, the saliva contains a type of anesthetic that helps relieve pain.

9. Kissing reduces anxiety and stops the, "noise in your mind." It increases the levels of oxycotin, and extremely calming hormone that produces a feeling of peace.

10. The endorphins produced by kissing are 200 times more powerful than morphine.

(www.bestkisses.com/kisses-for-health)

Grateful for Irritants

"When an irritating object becomes trapped within an oyster's shell, it deposits layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) slowly increasing in size and producing a pearl. This serves no purpose to the oyster, pearls do not attract mates for the oyster or perform any other function. It seems impossible to find an evolutionary advantage for the ability to produce the pearl, thus it can be explained only as a reaction to the irritation."

"Irritation is apparently the only universal sense shared by even single-celled creatures."

GREAT! The one thing we share with all organisms. . . even the "single-celled" ones is IRRITATION?!? Couldn't it have been something more pleasurable? Of all of the things that make us grow and change, irritants are probably to most efficient. If something hurts we quickly make an adjustment to avoid it. We evolve in a sense. But what if that irritant is chronic and we can't make it go away? What if we have a thorn in our side that can't be pried out?

Perhaps we can take a lesson from the oyster who takes a thorn and turns it into a rose. Even more interesting is what pearls are made out of, calcium carbonate.

Calcium carbonate is also a common substance found in the oyster's very own shell. So by enveloping this irritant with a little bit of itself, the oyster creates the June birthstone.

What is your chronic irritant? Helping you evolve as a person? Are you better for it?

A personal example? Being teased in school was an irritant, now I can look back and be grateful for it. A bully in school can be a irritant that feels impossible to get rid of. Do you focus all of your attention on making the irritant go away? Or. . . do you evolve from it? Do you develop the opalescent skills and virtues that will shine once you realize that bullies don't matter anymore?

So what is an example of an irritant in your life and how is it making you a better person? How many pearls can you count in your life because of something you once considered an "irritant"? Was it an irritant at all? Or was it simply a seed that grew into bigger and better things? Would your quality of life be better if you saw irritants as opportunities instead of nuisances?

*Quotes brought to you by Wikipedia*

Grateful for Dreams

Aspirations can come and go like ocean waves. Sometimes, if you get deep enough, they whip you around, toss you up, smooth those rough edges and most likely scare the living daylights out of you.

A year ago I realized that I had so many beautiful things in this moment but I was so focused on my dreams for the future that I'd forgotten how good I had it. In an effort to have the 20/20 vision that usually comes along with hindsight I re-analyzed and found I needed nothing to be happy, content, and full of life. Instead of remembering the good old days, we can focus on the good old Now.

Since everything in this gift of life is going so beautifully (sometimes I have to keep repeating that idea to make it through the day, see I'm not nauseously optimistic) it's time to take one dream that's been occupying my brainpower and make it a reality. That dream is to finish a book. Why not make it a positive book that gives a fresh outlook?

I'm grateful for the ups and downs. I'm grateful for falling when I'm standing on top of the world. I'm grateful for my soul mates and soul families. I'm grateful for the ones who told me to write about the beauty I saw in life when I was complaining about being bored with it. I'm grateful for being able to share it with you.

Some of the things these entries may encourage you to be grateful for have been polluted, diluted, damaged. But how can anything be repaired unless we are first grateful for it? Keep the negative and pessimistic thoughts out of you while you read this. When you fall and scrape your knee, do you think badly of the knee for being damaged? Or is that the time you look back and reminisce about the good old knee? No!

So stand up, brush off your dirty knees, and be grateful for them. Even if they're scraped. Even if they hurt. Even if they have arthritis. Even if you can't use them anymore. Even if you only have one. These are the little details that cloud our minds and leave us wanting. As long as you are wanting you are not being grateful. And if you just can't bring yourself to be grateful for your knees. . . be grateful for your elbows instead.