July 13 Symmetries

cc image courtesy flickr.com/photos/42614915@N00

Whatever it is that pulls the pin, that hurls you past the boundaries of your own life into a brief and total beauty, even for a moment, it is enough.   – Jeanette Winterson, Gut Symetries, p. 219

Symmetries intrigue me, but it’s the tiny perturbations from perfect symmetry that keep me interested, engaged, and leaning forward.

Today I’m thankful for symmetries, and modest perturbations.

1. I’m thankful that this site has become important enough to me that I didn’t let it become Tuesday without posting.
2. I’m thankful for that pang when I’m missing someone, a gentle reminder of what’s important.
3. And for making me laugh when I just wanted to scream today, thank you.

For what are you thankful?

July 6 Independence

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I’m one to think that it’s those things we take for granted that we should be most thankful.   I’m also acutely aware that for me, that’s a very long list.

Today I am thankful for my freedoms from

1. hunger that plagues  1 of 6 people in the world.
2. loneliness; this weekend I laughed with friends until my cheeks hurt and my eyes watered.
3. debt; I have what I need when I need it, and for that I am humbly grateful.

For what are you thankful?

June 29 Voices

cc image courtesy flickr.com/photos/fulminiesaette

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

Have you ever found yourself trapped between wondering if you should voice your opinion, or just “let it go”?

What if the people of Iran just “let it go”?

What if those who were at Stonewall, just walked away?

What if Martin Luther King, Jr. decided it wasn’t “his problem to resolve”?

The world, our world, depends on voices.

Today, I am thankful for

1. those that have the courage and the selflessness to speak up.
2. those that listen without judgment.
3. those that endure when it seems the world has stopped listening or caring.

For what are you thankful?

June 22 Insights

image courtesy flickr.com/photos/gracemcdunnough

I have been working toward discovering, or rediscovering as it were, my state of natural wakefulness.  Wakefulness is our natural state: enlightened, complete, perfect in wisdom and compassion. It’s not something outside ourselves that we need to attain or become, it’s fully within us but as I’m learning requires effort and focus to find it.

I am on a journey to rediscover and uncover my true core, which has been heaped over, calloused, and consumed by things that so often send me from a place of peace to that of tension, anxiety and anger.   I want to escape the prison of those things that often unbalance my otherwise happy and blessed existence – from the pettiness and petulance of others to the pains of my own insecurities.

So today I am thankful for those things along the journey that remind me where I’m going and encourage me to keep walking.

1. A unselfishly warm smile from a hurting heart.
2. A flower, unwavering in the sweltering heat.
3. The touch of a furry paw on my cheek in the morning, gentle but insistent with love.

For what are you thankful?

June 15 Enough

cc image courtesy flickr.com/photos/john-pa

Enough.  What does it say to you?

I’ve had enough.

I have enough.

Enough, is enough.

Enough is not enough.

It’s easy to stand on either side of enough; today I’m standing on both sides.

Today, I’m thankful for

1. having more than enough love in my life.
2. knowing, truly knowing that we will get through this – enough is enough.  I’ve had enough, you’ve had enough, we’ve had enough.
3. people who are my water wings and help keep my head just enough above the surface that I don’t drown.

For what are you thankful?

June 8 Coexist

cc image courtesy www.flickr.com/photos/br0wser

From Boston.com:

June 4th, 2009, marked the 20th anniversary of the military crackdown on student protesters gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. Beginning in April of 1989, thousands of students and other citizens started gathering in groups large and small, protesting many issues, centered on a desire for freedom and democratic reform. By mid-May of 1989, hundreds of thousands of protesters occupied the square, staging hunger strikes, and asking for dialogue. Chinese authorities responded with a declaration of martial law, and sent soldiers and tanks from the People’s Liberation Army, preparing to disperse the crowds. Late on June 3rd, 1989, the tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into the square, killing and wounding many, mostly civilians – estimates vary widely, from several hundred to several thousand dead.

From The Los Angles Times:

The California Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8 and existing same-sex marriages left in place all rights for California’s gays and lesbians except access to the label “marriage,” but it provided little protection from future ballot measures that could cost gays and other minorities more rights, lawyers and scholars said Tuesday.

A reflection on the course of events toward human rights leaves me wondering if we can coexist, or if it’s our very nature that keeps us from finding peace and acceptance.   We look back in scorn at the events on Tiananmen Square twenty years ago and yet we continue to alienate and destroy freedom, albeit in more subtle ways.

Do our minds see the world simply as too small to accommodate anyone else other than ourselves and those like us that we deem “acceptable”?

Is it just our fundamental nature to destroy and disintegrate rather than create and coalesce?  I hope not.

The world is big enough, find a way to coexist.

I am thankful for a simple peace

1. for homecomings and reuniting
2. a restful sleep
3. and people who build bridges that close the gaps that otherwise seem impassable.

For what are you thankful?

June 1 Second Chances

image grace mcdunnough

Yesterday I stepped outside for just a moment and from across the yard a tiny bit of amber caught my eye.    I wandered over and there she was, a lonely mushroom with her head held high, seemingly defying gravity or at least beating the odds.    I grabbed the camera and snapped just one shot and the combination of luck and light made me see her in a new way – not a teetering fungi but a graceful flower.

Sometimes you have to look twice to see what’s really there.

Today I’m thankful for

1. those who have given me a second chance, and a third and …
2. a place and time to share parts of me that are otherwise buried.
3. for the gift of two kidneys instead of just one.

For what are you thankful?

May 25 Recall

cc image courtesy flickr.com/photos/polvero

I’m driving down the road and a song comes on the radio, and instantly I’m transported back to a time and place, to a feeling, a precious moment carved out of life that somehow got lost in the milieu of my mind’s attic.  Recall.

Now imagine all the moments lost across our nation’s history, of those that left on a journey to places they’d never been, of those that returned with moments they hoped to never recall, and some they will never forget.

Take a moment today and recall.

Today I am thankful for

1. .. long walks in the forest with my grandfather as he explained every living thing.
2. .. the precious moment I met my forever love, gentle smiling eyes and easy laugh.
3. .. the day I picked up my guitar after so many years, and it sang to me.

For what are you thankful?

May 18 Signs of Life

cc image courtesy flickr.com/photos/keepdahfunkalive

There is new life in the backyard.  Two pale and very wrinkled bodies are tucked safely in a nest built against the back wall of the house. We stand for what feels like hours, peering out the window in hopes to catch a glimpse of the family in action. We are quiet, whispering, smiling.  Occassionally they lift their heads, big eyes closed, and mouths wide open in anticipation, and we gasp in delight.

Today I am thankful for the little signs of life:

1. The Blue Jay family that has adopted us.
2. The epic struggle of the Hostas to bust out of the crusted soil, unfurl and shine its bright green light.
3. The first peek of white on the stalk of the Yucca.

For what are you thankful?

May 11 Sunlight-ness

cc image courtesy flickr.com/photos/bcnbits/

This morning I awoke with a rush of joy – for just being alive.  It was a simple elation, like spotting the sunlight streaming through the trees, it lifts you up…

… there’s hope in there, go get it.

Today I am simply thankful:

1. For my life, simply put .. and,
2. the resources to be creative and expressive and still pay the bills and,
3. for the love in my life – the sunlight streaming through my trees – who is relentlessly and tirelessly supportive.

For what are you thankful?