In the Spirit of Gratitude

Hi everyone! Long time no talk 😉 I unintentionally took 2 weeks off, and I don’t think I realized quite how much I needed them. Thanksgiving was an inevitable day off but last week some website issues decided another week off would be best haha. I’m relieved that I can return and that my site is back in working order.

So, even though it’s 2 weeks later, I’m finding myself very much pleasantly stuck in a thankful mind state. Annually we have this one day that we impose that question and reflection on the things that we have been blessed with and more importantly the importance of that acknowledgement. There’s a lot that I like about the celebration of a day to give thanks, and there’s a lot that I find worthy of carrying into the other 364 days of the year. Understandably, I don’t know how sustainable or how effective daily reflections of thankfulness are, or if the impact of the build up each year is the ticket to fully embracing all that is and seeing the entire picture. Maybe the dose of thankfulness is on a person to person basis? All I know is it feels good to take a stroll down the list of things that give life such value and sweetness.

I genuinely get overwhelmed by a lot of things around the holidays, a mass majority of it is a lot of internal struggles, and some emotional baggage comes along with it. But I give all the effort I have to see the reasons I have to be appreciative, and because 2020 has done quite a bang up job of existing, this year felt hard to be thankful for. Really really hard to be thankful for, but I remembered how obvious the contrast can make the brighter pieces of the picture. Suddenly feeling thankful for the year this has been just got easier and easier. Granted things haven’t been easy, but we don’t acquire strength without struggle and pressure, and this year has offered resistance in troves. The quality and authenticity of all that surrounds us started to bleed through, and the necessity of the bare minimum and the essentials were given a stern second look. Luxuries became silly, and anything of excess had an after taste of guilt in a time when we all know the struggles have increased for everyone, some unbearably more than others… Most have moved into a mentality of survival-ism… Some have never left it.

A level of insanity was beginning to settle in, feeling the weight of the propaganda creating confusion and division in a time when people need community and fellowship. I wish I would have turned away and turned inward sooner, because it robbed me of time, put walls between me and people I know, and ultimately took my peace of mind.

Once I decided to give into hope and doing the work within, I started to feel the difference in my thoughts. My actions were more focused, and my creativity felt driven to a whole new dimension. As soon as the disconnect from the media, news, and social media occurred, I remembered the things I used to give my love and energy to. I rediscovered all that I had been neglecting worrying about the pandemic, the election, the president, the news, etc etc etc. The feeling was invigorating and even a bit vulnerable, I rode a few emotional waves coming out of the media/society fog, but felt the soul release in the cleansing. It was in that week flood and turmoil that I realized….

I’m so so, oh so grateful for

My Wife

My Mama, My Pa & My Mama She

My Sisters

My Brother

My Nieces and Nephews

My Great Grandmother

My Grandparents

My Padilla’s

My In-Laws

My Fuzz/Scaly butts

Dory (Pup)

Urmo (Kitty)

Jasper (Beardie)

Our chosen family

Our Health

Our home

Our Love

I’m especially thankful for all the things money could never buy,

The things you can feel their value in your being

The things that go with you wherever life takes you

The things that make you want to grow

and all the lessons and dark nights that led us to new understanding and brighter days….

I hope you all are finding all the things, big and small, that make you feel special and blessed to witness and experience all this life has to offer.

Sending out all my love to yous, I’m still and always most grateful to the eyes that find their way here each Thursday to give an audience to my rambles 😀 This new outlet has been therapeutic to say the lease. So you know, Thank you so very much <3

<3 Miki Len