First, I am grateful for my parents. I am grateful for all the kind words, all the steady, consistent parenting, and for knowing when to let their daughter grow her own wings and soar. I am grateful they still enjoy life and get around in their 80s and wish for them many more years, hugs, family gatherings and laughter.
I am also grateful that they along with about 18 other people will be congregating for Thanksgiving this year. Some years Thanksgiving is lovely and low-key and small. This year it will be lovely and anything but low-key and small. I will enjoy every moment of the joyful, festive pandemonium of friends and family from three states.
I am grateful for my older sister, Sara. I worshipped her as a child. I appreciated the profoundness of her commitment to gymnastics as a child and teen. I appreciate her patience when she was required to babysit her younger sister, and I appreciate that later we developed the respect of one another not only as sisters, but as friends. I am also grateful for the fact that she and her hubby of many years invited me to be part of their lives, and part of their children’s lives. I deeply love her daughters and their families and wish for each of them love, and joy as they walk their journeys.
I am grateful for my older brother, Jim. I experienced him as a jovial little friend in early life and that memory of how warm and compassionate he was forever stays with me. I appreciate how entertaining he was/is because he has a good sense of humor. I never stopped wishing for him a life of love and joy. I am glad that he has the love of a devoted partner and children (who are all beautiful adults now.) I wish for each of them love and joy as they journey through their lives.
I am grateful for all experiences and relationships from birth to now. I am grateful to the teachers who with great insight and wisdom subtly saw something in me and changed my life forever. I am grateful for the friends every step of the journey, especially those whose long-term friendship I could not live without. They have become like frequently visited lighthouses on my path, and I pray I have helped them in as significant a way.
I am grateful for mentors, authors, musicians, ministers, teachers, and those who showed up in less formal roles who changed my life or helped me through difficult passages. In my twenties, there were a few notable people. At age 58, the many experiences, encounters, and life chapters which spring to my awareness could fill a book.
My life has been how I have grown. How I have grown has been from my own successes and failures, spiritual growth, and evolving and deepening relationships. Some were short, others were long. Some gave me an insight to something I needed to change in myself. Others radiated so brightly with their humble wisdom, I had no choice but to raise my own vibration. Their influence helped me rise over troubles and become a better person in the process. I cannot overstate the importance of this particular group.
I am grateful for the stability I now experience. Some life chapters bring great change in location, or logistics. Others bring a plateau where the residence and job and basic life routines become repetitive and predictable, however, the inner life continues to be a growing, evolving adventure. The stability can allow for more attention, and more depth in the small things. On the spiritual journey, the small things are the big things.
I am grateful for my place of employment. I have been working at Rocky Mountain PACE just over 2 years now. I am grateful for what their organization does for the local seniors in Colorado Springs. I am honored to be a small part of a large effort involving many people. I am grateful that I have had the chance to work in the medical field which creates the opportunity to help people in large and deep ways. I am grateful that I have had this environment to grow and develop myself. I am grateful for those I have met and friendships formed while doing this job.
I am grateful for all accomplishments, goals reached and milestones overcome. I am grateful that Eva’s Journey exists and is published. I blessed it and let it go in the world. If one or if a million people are touched by it is not in my control. I am just grateful it is there and sometimes I still read it just because I want to live through the adventure of the story again.
I am grateful for my time spent in educational activities and for writing articles for technical magazines and doing tech support and other computer work. I am grateful for the time crafting stained glass, and engaging my creative side in art. I am grateful for all of the volunteering, and all of the work I have done on myself.
I am grateful for all forms of art and those who engage in it. It allows souls to communicate, and sometimes something profound clicks and it becomes like a spiritual intravenous feeding. It amazes me that as humans we can do that for one another through art or music, even if we don’t necessarily know each other personally.
Lastly, I am grateful that I walk this earth at this geologic time, in this location. From a cosmic perspective, that one simple thing can be mind-boggling. How lucky am I to experience this life to see a forest, a mountain, a fellow human, a hummingbird, an airplane, a bug I have never seen before. To be a tiny part of the unfolding of planet earth in the Milky Way galaxy is such a great honor. I pray in the sum total of my life, I walk lightly, help many others, and contribute to the health of this world.