A Time for Thanksgiving

As one holiday tradition passes into another, I believe that regardless of your views on the origin of the holiday, it is always a season to for thanksgiving.  Gratitude can be expressed in any time and any circumstance.  And often in the paradoxes of life.  Let me explain how this is working for me right now.

Last week, I was privileged to take part in a week long conference entitled "Braveheart Women RISE 2012" in Los Angeles, California.  (More to come on this in next week's blog).  In spite of having been healing through chronic illnesses that have been plaguing the body I live in, I was able to feel vivacious.  I drummed, danced, and communed with the rest of the women like the healthy person I aspire to be.  I felt like a woman half my age, but with wisdom, a few more wrinkles, and reading glasses in tow.  I am grateful for this taste of health!

And then I came home.  I am having some pain I have not experienced before.  I was having some of this pain during the conference, but was able to ignore it.  Part of me wanted to go back to last week, but I know I must embrace today and all that it encompasses.  I am grateful for the ability to face what I must in this land of forms while knowing I can transcend it in spirit and by moving one step at a time on a path towards healing and sharing my purpose.

I am grateful for the wisdom to know that all things happen in the right timing.  I am grateful to accept that I must press on at a seemingly snail's pace compared to how I operated several years ago.  And I am grateful because I now know that the pace I use to operate at was not truly healthy or good.

I am grateful for understanding friends who have been there when it was tough for me.  I am grateful for new friends and old friends reacquainted.  I am grateful because I know I can still give and have purpose even without the usual sense of career and job many of my contemporaries possess.  I can offer a smile when I'm walking my dog.  I can hug my daughter.  I can laugh and now that it is contagious!

I am grateful because I have compassion and understanding for those in pain.  I am grateful because I must face the reality that many are deluded from knowing:  we do not know what the future holds.  But I am grateful because I know regardless of circumstances, in the end all will be ok.

And that's Penny's two cents.