30 Days of Gratitude - Day 10

I am feeling grateful lately for some very abstract things. One such thing is music. I am grateful for all forms and types. I love to have it playing the background when I'm working or sewing. I'll play classical when I'm reading. I'll turn on some dance music when I'm cleaning. When I need a break from the day, I'll go find something relaxing or upbeat or mid tempo, depending on the mood or the need. Sometimes, I need it to lift me up; other times to calm me down. It makes me laugh and cry. I sing along loudly and badly at times. At other times, I just close my eyes and appreciate the beauty of the sounds. Music is in everything. Music can project so much and it is one of those forms of art that can be interpreted differently by each person who plays it as well as by each person that hears it.

Thank you for music. Here is one of my favorite songs, no matter who performs it and trust me I did a YouTube search and there are a lot of people that have performed it.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 9

Today I want to say that I am grateful to the wise women and men of the world whose thoughts and ideas are forever inspiring me to become a better person. One such person, in my book, is Mahatma Gandhi.

Here is a list of his top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World, as found on Pinterest:

1. Change Yourself. 
2. You are in control.
3. Forgive and let go. 
4. Without action you aren't going anywhere. 
5. Take care of this moment.
6. EVERYONE IS HUMAN.
7. PERSIST. 
8. See the good in people and help them. 
9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your TRUE SELF. 
10. Continue to grow and evolve. 

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

What a Woman Should Do - Part 9 and 10

I"m putting the final 18 all in one list...Be prepared.

1. Explore your inner pagan by creating your own seasonal rituals: 
2. At the spring equinox, detox with a juice fast, sauna, and deep muscle massage. (I could definitely do this. March will become the cleansing month.)
3. At the summer solstice, hire a manicurist to give pedicures to you and four friends while your pampered klatch sips mint juleps. (Look out June...there's going to be some fancy feet and liquor flowing.)
4. At the fall equinox, organize a black-clad, beatnik poetry reading with the themes of rain, dissolution, and romance. (Who will join me come September?)
5. At the winter solstice, plant a circle of globed candles in a snowdrift and make wishes every night until they burn out. (Looks like there will be a trip to colder climes come December.... Anybody want to join?)
6. Do Stevie Nicks on karaoke - sober. (Well, I sang Olivia Newton John on karaoke not sober and I sing Stevie Nicks sober in the car....why not mesh the two together...)
7. Read James Joyce to telemarketers. (Oh how I would love to do this....if only I didn't want to just get off the phone as quickly as possible.)
8. Stick your nose where it doesn't belong to stop child or animal abuse. (This would take some cajones, but I think I would do it.)
9. Eschew a job for a career. (I've tried to to this...not very successfully.)
10. Eschew a career for a job. (I'm working on this one.)
11. Buy one significant piece of original art. (Do I have to buy it? Can't I make it?)
12. Kiss a girl. (If you are talking kiss as in "kiss", I'll pass. It just doesn't interest me.)
13. Lead a protest or commit an act of civil disobedience. (Who am I? Walt Whitman?)
14. Forgive the unforgivable. (It is not my place to pass judgement on any living creature. All I can promise is that I will work to forgive wrongs done against me.)
15. Embrace change. (Every day. All day. If we aren't changing and growing and accepting and embracing the changes within and around us, then we are dead.)
16. Drop cable to spend the money on a $50 bottle of champagne each month. (Heck, I'm dropping cable just to not have that in my life any longer and to have that time that I waste in front of the television back to focus on other things like reading and quilting and becoming me....the extra money is just a bonus and who knows champagne may be involved.)
17. Abandon self-doubt. (So very hard to do, but worth the work and I am working it.)
18. Give birth to your heart's deepest desire and develop postnatal amnesia about the pain so you can do it again. (Since I haven't had children, and will not be having children, I don't know what that pain feels like. However, with the creation of anything there is some pain anyway and at this point in time I am willing to face that pain and embrace it....as soon as I figure out what my heart's deepest desire actually is.)

That is all of the things that a woman supposedly should do. Thoughts? 

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 8

I wasn't certain what I wanted to be grateful for today, but then I came across the following and decided that I would share it:

I'm thankful for...

• The taxes I pay because it means that I am employed. 
• The clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat. 
• My shadow who watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine (okay, so this doesn't happen much...but you get the idea). 
• A lawn that has to be mowed, windows that have to be washed, and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home. 
• The spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking. 
• All the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech. 
• The lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear. 
• The alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I'm alive. 

Okay, so maybe a little schmaltzy, but you get the picture.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 7

Today I am grateful that the election season is over and the political ads will cease to rule the airways. Now, if we could just get our country to put aside the differences and become healthy again. 

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 6

Today I am grateful that I live in a country where I have the freedom to believe and speak what I want to without fear of the government (or that used to be the case and hopefully some of the laws that were inacted after the terrorist attacks occurred that took away some of our inalienable rights will be repealed and we will return to what our fore fathers originally dreamed of for this country). Let us never forget what our country stands for:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. 

On this day whereby we have the right to make our choices known, let us all remember to participate in this great nation of ours. 

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 5

Today I want to put out there that I am grateful for the state of Texas and its innate beauty. There is a lot about Texas that I do not agree with, especially when it comes to politics, but I do not want to focus on that. The landscape of Texas makes me grateful that I have to opportunity to live here and travel around this state. It is so diverse from one are to the next and so much of it is just natural, raw, and beautiful.  I was reminded that I had this appreciation as I was driving South towards Houston on the way to Texas Renaissance Faire. In just looking out across the flat prairie lands as the sun went down, I smiled internally knowing that not everyone appreciates the beauty, but I do. 

As I goggled Texas images to provide the correct one to represent how I felt, I came across too many to show just one, so here are some of the representations of this state's beauty: 

Big Bend

Blue Bonnets

Dust Storm

Texas Wildflowers

Rio Grande River cutting through Big Bend

Sunset over the Prairies

Texas Wildflowers