Happy New Year! Welcome 2020 and How to Move Forward in Love

HAPPY NEW YEAR!   

                    
This is what I call the "twilight time." The week between Christmas and New Year's Eve. It's a great opportunity to reflect on the past twelve months and bring your best energy into the year ahead. Take a few minutes to try these three simple exercises to bless 2019 and welcome in 2020.

1)  Make a list of at least 10 people/events/ideas that you are truly grateful for from 2019. While many people will spend hours creating lists of what they want to release from the past year, few remember to note the amazing things they experienced individually, as a family or as a community. What would be on your list? New job? Did you read a life changing book? Did your sports team win a national championship? (GO NATS!) Did you meet a new friend or take a great day trip? Even when we experience trauma, there's always something to be grateful for. Start your 2019 gratitude list now.

2) Make a list of your major positive life lessons or shifts from 2019. This is different from your gratitude list. For example, I am deeply grateful I was introduced to the work of Lynne McTaggart last year. From that, I gained a major life lesson in the collective power of intention...and that's been life changing for me. (More about that in the new year!) Make sense? Life lessons could include understanding the grief process, realizing how to shift your thoughts to create your mood or anything else that helped you see your world with new understanding. It's those "aha!" moments. Take a few minutes to remember those now.

3) Reach out and thank people who helped, supported and loved you through last year.  Did an individual, organization or group make a difference for you in 2019? Send an email or text, write a letter (use a pen and paper and mail it the old fashioned way), post on social media or call and let them know their efforts were noted and appreciated. Whether it's a close family member or an author you never met, take the time to let them know they made a positive difference in your life.

I'm all for release rituals and other ways to close out the year AND I believe strongly in bringing the energy of gratitude and love into the next year. I hope you take a few minutes to think about your 2019 and do one or all of these exercises above to move forward in 2020 with love.

I deeply appreciate each of you! 

What I’m Grateful for NOW

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite time of the year. No. Question. Some people think that’s kinda weird, since I’m a vegetarian, but it’s not about the food for me. 

It’s all about the gratitude. 

I love gratitude lists, gratitude journals, TV shows about gratitude, magazine articles, blogs…you get the idea. I even published an eBook earlier this year, “Living from a Grateful Heart: 10 Gratitude Practices for Individuals, Families and Groups,” to share some of my favorite ways to say “thank you.”

This year is no different. I feel blessed and full of gratitude. In the past 12 months I’ve made new friends, blossomed as a member of a spiritual mastermind group, watched my beautiful grandson grow, experienced spiritual growth when I least expected it, started new projects and continued to love and be loved by my family and friends.

To be honest, this year hasn’t all been easy.  Like many of you, it’s been a year of ups and downs. I have to admit the “downs” seemed more plentiful at times, especially when I worried about loved ones in the path of hurricanes or wild fires, supported others through unspeakable trauma, felt the all too familiar pain of mass shootings and lived through a particularly intense election cycle.

Through it all, I remembered one truth. Gratitude is the doorway to love. To my mind, no drama, trauma, challenge or chaos can triumph over love. When the world seems dark, I do my best to remember the light of love. 

When I sit down at our family Thanksgiving dinner this year, I’ll be grateful for these five truths:

1) No matter what happens in my family, community or the world at large, I know I’m in control of my thoughts and how I choose to react. I can choose love or fear. I choose love.

2) While I often see what’s wrong in the world, I know there’s more light than dark.  I see the legions of neighbors helping each other during natural disasters, organized meditation and prayer groups that have been scientifically proven to positively effect mass behavior and the kindness of strangers. I see love at work in the world. 

3) I am not my circumstances. I am, like you, the essence of the divine in human form.

4) The more I am grateful, the more I have to be grateful for. I absolutely know that sincere gratitude expands exponentially.

5) I am grateful to know that God, Universe, Source Energy – whatever you want to call it – is at work in my life and in the world calling us all to expand even more into the love we are at our core.

I’ll continue to practice gratitude and marvel in the many gifts that are constantly presented to me, even in the darkest times.

I’m grateful to each of you and wish you a most beautiful Thanksgiving. May the spirit of true gratitude live in our hearts throughout the year.

Thanks, Mom!

On Sunday we celebrate Mother’s Day here in the United States. While I sincerely appreciate the lovely Mother’s Days I’ve spent with my own children, one of my favorite Mother’s Day memories was all about my mom.

Mom passed in 2005 and my brother, sister and I struggled with her loss while we cared for my dad in the years that followed. One year I had an idea.

Even though mom was gone, we decided to celebrate her on Mother’s Day. We met at her grave early that Sunday morning and brought eight roses. One for each of us, and one for each grandchild. Then we went to IHop (Mom loved the breakfasts there) and proceeded to tell “Mom stories.” I had asked my brother and sister to come prepared to share their favorite memory and so our celebration began over omelets and waffles.

“She was ruthless when she smelled a good jewelry sale!” remembered my brother who was close to her equal in the “getting a great deal” department. He went on to recount hilarious stories about our dear mother, dragging an oxygen tank, proud of her handicap sticker that got us “the good parking spaces” at the mall, and how she was a wizard at finding just the right outfit for any occasion. She often wore “theme jewelry” for the holidays and our kids loved it. My children still smile each Halloween when they remember her dangling skeleton earrings. We laughed till we cried as the funny memories filled our hearts.

“She was the perfect mother for me,” my sister started as she explained why she believed this to be true. She shared memories of support, encouragement and love that my brother and I hadn’t been aware of. “Wow,” I thought. Mom really was good at being who each of us needed her to be.

Although I had my own mom stories that day, I know now that Mom’s gift to me was to challenge me in ways I never appreciated when I was young. I didn’t always feel supported. I didn’t always feel loved. But I know now that those challenges were part of the path I needed to walk to grow into the person I am now. I know now, as an adult, that she did the best she could. We both were together to learn from each other.

I hope she knows how much I learned and how much I now appreciate those lessons. Happy Mother’s Day to the woman who was the perfect mom for me.

The Gift of Gratitude

My family came to our house for Thanksgiving this year and I wanted to make the day special. Certainly there’d be plenty of food, fun and football…but I wanted more. I wanted each person to take home a gift of gratitude. Here’s what I did.

As my unsuspecting family members arrived, they saw a table with small jars each tied with glittering ribbon and a tag with phrases like “Kudos for Kyle,” “Everyone Loves Evan” and “Thankful for Stephanie.” There was one jar for everyone in attendance, twelve in all. One by one, we each wrote a short personal note of gratitude to each individual person at the dinner and put the note in their jar. I’d love to be able to tell you that everyone embraced my plan and poured their heart out onto the little slips of colored paper I’d provided. Not the case.

I had to explain the concept several times as I endured a few deep sighs and weird looks. My family is used to me though.  As they stared at me with blank expressions, I again explained the notes were to express love, gratitude or appreciation and hopefully in a way that had never been expressed before. The consensus seemed to be I was making them work for their dinner. I was.

After a few more groans, the writing began. I heard some giggles and laughter soon followed. “Nobody has to do homework before dinner when they come to my house” my brother chuckled as he stuffed a note into my jar. Some notes were signed, some not. After a while, each jar was filled with notes of gratitude, appreciation and love.

Yes, we had turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. The vegetarians had a lovely quinoa salad and enjoyed the Brussel sprouts. We all had fun being together but the real magic of the day came when each person collected their gratitude jar and read the messages inside.

Want to make a lasting memory for your friends and family this holiday? Use your imagination and create your own gifts of gratitude.