Today I Give Thanks, I Don’t Ask…

Today is November 17, 2009, my grandfather’s 84th birthday if he would be alive. I picked up my grandma about 8:30am and drove to the cemetery to leave flowers by his graveyard, it was a beautiful morning, the sun was up and brought out the colors of fall.

As we were driving to Rose Hills Cemetery we started a conversation about life…one of those deep conversations that you can only have with a person that has been alive for over 70 yrs. and the urge to give thanks for the things I have sparked.

Write thank you cards to the people and things you love in your life. Keep them handy to read when it’s challenging to get into a state of gratitude. Write thank you cards to your loved ones, to your body, to your pet, to your inner voice, to God. Tell them everything you love and cherish about them – from the “Little Book of Light”

Below I started a list of the things I am grateful for. From now until Thanksgiving day I plan to focus on giving thanks and not ask for anything in return.

1. My awesome husband that loves me and respects me like no one else in this world
2. My 3 awesome kids that fill my life up to the top
3. Travis {my golden retriever} that starts to sleep by my side each fall when the weather gets cooler
4. My House {decorated with rich colors for the holidays}
5. Each of my friends
6. Re-connecting with Ailsa {my big sister in life}
7. My new coaching client
8. My grandmother and her inner beauty
9. A drive to Frances University with Andres and Sebastian
10. My car
11. St. Marks {my kids school and the amazing community we have there}
12. The smell of homemade food
13. A bottle of wine
14. My health
15. My body
16. The sun
17. Sun warming the Hardwood floors of my bedroom
18. My garden
19. CTI and the wonderful community and training it has brought to my life
20. The tree of love growing outside my house
21. My mother, her discipline and loyalty
22. My 2 nephews and niece
23. My brother and his stubbornness
24. My MacBook that gives me the leverage to create and connect
25. The{Naked}Elephant
26. My career
27. The wind
28. Francisco’s laugh
29. California Palm trees
30. All the beautiful flowers in the universe
31. My bed
32. My dad and his passion for cooking
33. Andres’ {my son, 10} delicious dinner, specially his Caesar Salad recipe
34. “The Antelopes”
35. Water and electricity

Day two of gratitude {Nov. 18 2009}

1. A new day
2. My life
3. The sun caressing my skin as I drive
4. My grandmother’s great health
5. Francisco’s entrepreneurship knowledge
6. All the people I see every day
7. I give thanks for not being alone in this world
8. The roads
9. Freedom
10. A new contact from earth.org and the opportunity to jam in PR with them
11. Flicker
12. Skype {Makes my worldwide connections easy and fun}
13. Twitter {is great to connect with new people every day}
14. Lettuce and lemon {love it!}
15. A cup of tea
16. my voice and laugh
17. my kids smiles
18. Sebastian’s ingenuity
19. Frances tenderness to others

Day three of gratitude {Nov. 19 2009}

1. Another sunny morning is South Cal.
2. All the smiling faces I saw this morning when I dropped off the kids at School
3. Stop signs {imagine if we didn’t have any}
4. The smell of fresh coffee
5. Green hills surrounding my house
6. Trees
7. Falling leaves
8. My eyes and the blessing that I have to see each season change colors
9. The water fountain in front of my home office
10. The birds that come and shower there each morning
11. The starts
12. The night
13. My bubble bath
14. My kids just being
15. All the new people I met today
16. The silence
17. The end of the day
18. My ability to see greatness
19. The past and all the learning it has giving me
20. Peace
21. My arms that allow me to embrace and reach out
22. My legs that give me the ability to walk
23. Books

Day four of gratitude {Nov. 20, 2009}

1. Birds flying in my backyard
2. Spirit day at the kids school
3. Chicken dance
4. My ability to be present and enjoy each smile
5. Francisco’s loud music in the morning {it gets him going}
6. Last night I was able to lay on my bed, with zero preoccupations, that is a true blessing
7. This beautiful day and my camera
8. Leaves falling
9. My Facebook community
10. Every noise I am able to hear
11. Every moment I am able to see
12. Every word I am able to speak
13. Every thing I am able to touch
14. Francisco’s successful business
15. My Friday off enjoying my kids and self
16. My heart that keeps pumping
17. My desire to reach for higher mountains
18. My willingness to shut up and listen

Day five of gratitude{Nov. 21, 2009}

1. I give thanks for Saturday and the blessing I have to spend the weekend with my kids and participate at all their activities.
2. Clouds-how they remind me that everything is temporary
3. music
4. pizza time and friends
5. my son’s sportsmanship spirit
6. Goals
7. Cool weather
8. Holiday season
9. My skin
10. A nap with Francisco
11. His morning kiss and hug
12. My kids waking up on the weekends, the rest of the week I have to wake them up
13. Frances 1st boyfriend for loving and caring for her
14. Frances laugh
15. Cookies
16. Money
17. My work
18. My kitchen
19. All the people I have this holidays to cheerish life and the new year the is coming
20. X-mas trees

Day six of gratitude {Nov. 22, 2009}

The feeling I have towards life and being grateful cannot be listed, without first describing my day. Andres my older son is a Boy Scout and a week ago he lost one of his scout friends due to a serious illness which doctors couldn’t control. Today we assisted his funeral services as a family, the pain in his parents tear me down. How is it possible to continue living after losing a child? Emotions inside of me are not allowing me to be grateful for the things I have. How can I be grateful? When people in my community are experiencing such painful loss. I make a conscious pause today to be with them in my heart, and I ask God to bring peace to their hearts, and hopefully the joy of another child, I know Timothy will continue to lite up their life from Heaven as he did when he was with us, time will take away their pain and bring sunshine back to their life.

Today I give thanks for:

1. Peace
2. Tears
3. Time
4. Love
5. Family
6. Friends
7. God
8. Prayers
9. Healing
10. Reflection
11. Hope
12. Light
13. Heaven
14. Angels
15. Joy
16. Scouts and their high values of friendship

“Timothy Lee, you will always be remembered as a fun boy to be around”

Day seven of gratitude {Nov. 23, 2009}

1. Another sunny day in California
2. A walk in the park
3. Autumn colors
4. The sky
5. My kids and the hundreds of interruptions I get from them when they are home
6. Flour, eggs, sugar, butter and milk {I baked a pound cake}
7. Holiday decorations
8. My friends
9. The connections I made today
10. My email
11. MY grandmother and her crazy feedback about life and TV shows
12. Mondays
13. Max {my brother’s new golden retreiver}
14. Cat in the hat {the boy watch the movie 2 times today and allowed me to get some work done}
15. A video I received from Wisdom Films
16. My faith
17. My willingness to change
18. Love
19. My awesome life

Day eight of gratitude {Nov. 24, 2009}

1. Decorating the house with my kids
2. My grandmothers company
3. Francisco sense of humor
4. Cookies
5. I can’t get enough of autumn colors
6. Reading and a cup of tea
7. a good movie night
8. My brother
9. My friends
10. X-mas trees
11. Decorations
12. Xmas wishes from last year as I take out the storage boxes
13. Xmas lights and the blessing I have to see each of them shine
14. The smell of homemade cookies
15. My bed and solitude

Day nine of gratitude {Nov. 25, 2009}

1. Patience
2. Hope
3. The Sun
4. Optimism
5. Emotional Intelligence
6. All our new leaders
7. Thanksgiving cooking
8. Turkey and the blessing I have today to cook with my kids
9. Apples
10. The boys friends
11. Watching the boys play Basketball
12. My cousins and their warmth wishes
13. Peace
14. Balance
15. My brain
16. My heart
17. My willingness
18. A smile
19. Hugs
20. Family time

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo by: eddie 07

Tagged as: Thanksgiving