Practicing Gratitude

Well, it’s the third week of practicing gratitude. As the holidays approach, are you getting frazzled, or are you staying focused on the beautiful moments and the things that bring you happiness?

This week has been filled with such sweet moments of mindfulness with my daughter! Focusing on being in the moment with her is such a fruitful practice and just opens my heart…

For instance, just this morning, she crawled into bed with me at around five am. She has always been such an early bird… she started talking and I was sort of dozing, not really paying attention to her (since I was still effectively asleep!). She became very still and I opened my eyes to her looking at me with a little smile on her face. I woke up to the moment, and the pre-dawn light beginning to rise in the room, and just saw her. A long enough moment to really see her. It was like drinking her in~ her smooth skin and crazy hair, the open smile, the shining eyes, her whole being just exuding excitement for the day.

Then, she put her hand on my cheek, as I often do with her and said very quietly, “Mommy, do you know how much I love you?” I replied in the affirmative and told her how much I love her, too. A big hug followed and then she popped up and said, “LET’S GET UP, MOMMY! WE NEED TO MAKE CAKE!” (For her third birthday party tomorrow.) It was maybe 15 seconds, but there was so much there!

In addition, I am so very grateful for the community of people that I have been honored to meet in the very short time I’ve been blogging. The practice of writing is something I am very much falling in love with and I just adore the sense of community.