I AM SO BLESSED, 3 MORE DAYS TIL TURKEY DAY!

SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA LAUGH

RAISE YOUR HAND IN PRAISE

 AND

JUST LAUGH

Good morning! Take a look at that laugh will ya? Oh and that beautiful soft and wonderful hand, raised in praise of life, laughter and joy! And, please don't miss the worn souls of those trusty slippers... ever heard the expression "walk a mile in my shoes"? Of course those who know me, or have heard me speak at keynotes or seminars will often hear me say, "you will never know what someone is going through unless you have walked the path they are walking and shared their moccasins".  Well it certainly looks as though Granny had walked many a mile in those doesn't it? But the blessings can be seen in her face; in her smile and in her hand raised with praise and gladness. It was a moment to be caught on camera and witnessed; a time to be had to to speak, and now a memory both to be shared and a gift, that this morning I am feeling blessed to have, the memory always one to cherish.

You know the routine... get your trusty list out! Do you have your blessing already in your heart; in your mind, in your thoughts this morning? Ready, set ... go!  Write and say your blessing for this day. What is the one thing you are giving thanks for today; the one blessing that you are choosing to have for your day? Go on, write it down and put it somewhere you can see it!

There are many healing-ways and many paths to finding your way to more than the kitchen table this year at Thanksgiving! Writing your blessings; your list of things to be thankful for or your "gratitude list". It is but one of the many ways along the journey. It is a great list you have started and a great one to share around the table with family at Thanksgiving! A great new or old tradition; to have each person take a moment and hold hands... go around the table and each person share one thing that they are grateful  or thankful for this year! If you are alone; stand in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye; tell you what YOU are thankful for; if you talk to a friend/family by phone, tell them.

It is a choice we make to walk the path of truth; healing, light. It is a choice to embrace the day and dance in the light giving praise to the day; to the Creator, to God, to ourselves; just as it is a choice to be still and not move from our pained places. I have heard that it takes twice as many muscles to frown as it does to smile... and the reactions of others is tremendously different depending on which they are exposed to just as the effects of which we choose to do, has an impact on how we actually feel ourselves. You see friends, again it is about choices that we make; and we make those choices a "ga-zillion" times a day! Keeping in mind that to not make a choice is actually making a choice!

Seriously though, people all over the globe that go beyond feelings of brokenness; those who overcome great tragedy and hurt appear to approach things by developing or re-discovering their "warrior" self that lives deep within each of us. Just take another look at my beautiful Granny and you will see a remarkable warrior; a woman who lived; lost, loved, overcame great tragedy and loss, laughed, struggled, stood strong, fought hard, and ultimately died with hospice care, her loving daughters present, me talking in her ear by phone, all the while she maintained her grace and dignity. Her funeral service thought brutally painful was in fact as beautiful as she was; conducted with the same beauty as she gave so many during her many years; with love, tears, laughter and music on a cold February day in Virginia.

We are here; her relations because she was an elegant warrior, a survivor; we felt broken when she died... but we survived and the next generation will too survive because we have survived and so it is good.

We are blessed... and for that I give thanks and I rejoice; and so...it is!  And it is GOOD!

You too can feel this way, if you fight; if you work to find your warrior within AND if you choose to!

You too can find your warrior within! I can remember Granny telling me, "Old Cherokees don't die, we just fade"! Perhaps that is true... there is no death, only a change of worlds as Chief Seattle said oh so long ago. Miss those we have loved?  You betcha we do; always. But that is only a testament to having loved and been loved, so that too is something worthy of blessings and praise!

You too can solve problems, one at a time and treat those you love well and love them the best way you know how.

You too can decide that you want to learn, grow and dance to the rhythm of life in the rain and to the sounds of the thunder beings.

You too can find your path and make your own landscape of beautiful memories. Different maybe than the landscapes of past years and the landscapes you have had in dreams... but beautiful is beautiful.

You too can create your own traditions for this Thanksgiving while remembering those past. Maybe you want Steak this year; there are no food rules except those created for us, or those we create!

We all are interconnected in our joys, our hurts, our pains

We are all interconnected in the greater circle

Dancing to the rhythms of life and nature

Walk In Beauty

Author of Healing Heartaches, Stories of Loss and Life, order your autographed copies at:

http://www.healingheartaches.com/