I started my week, in a rather bad mood.\u00a0 I know this,\u00a0 I can feel the weight of it.
\nAnd so I try to ease myself through, as gently and kindly as I can.
\nI can feel when I am brooding, and I am very conscious of just what this may be doing to
\nmy face. \u00a0Is this really what I want to be offering the world?
\nYesterday while at work,\u00a0 I am spraying seeds,\u00a0 off on my own,\u00a0 it is rather hot where I am working and I can feel the sweat rolling down my back.\u00a0 As I am on my own, I am also deep in thought working through something that\u2019s been bothering me.\u00a0 In fact these same thoughts had me rather frustratingly awake in the middle of the night when I very much would have preferred to be asleep, and so I am also feeling tired and a bit worn.
\nAs I am spraying, I just happen to glance down and what suddenly catches my eye is a small clump of dirt. \u00a0Now where I work there just happens to be.. \u00a0a lot of dirt. \u00a0 But this simple bit of dirt, that catches my eye appears to be in the shape of a heart.
\nInstantly I can actually feel, all the tension leave my face as all tumbling thoughts empty from my worried mind.\u00a0 My face softens. Light seems to gently wash over me.
\nAnd I smile.<\/p>\n
Now, I know just how dumb this may sound, but it is here in this little clump of dirt that I am reminded to be kind,
\nto soften
\nand
\nto be open
\nto Love
\nThis changes my day greatly.<\/p>\n
Later, I give a gift to a new friend.\u00a0 A book that I have loved.\u00a0 I have wrapped it in lovely paper to present it – as intended, with kindness. She startles me, this friend by saying, \u201cWhy would you do that?” in a slightly accusing tone and for a moment I am embarrassed and wanting to hide.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0But then comes her smile, and I wonder if she knows of the gift –
\nI have received.
\nMy appreciation for her comes in the initial thought I have of kindness towards her, when I first think to myself, I would like to do this for you\u2026\u00a0 because you are my friend.
\nAnd this, to me
\nThis is the best feeling in the world.<\/p>\n
Today, I get to see my husband for maybe 20 minutes longer than the five I have in the past two days.\u00a0 He pokes his head in and as I am sat with my laptop he asks, \u201cAre you writing something?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a book review,\u00a0 I say, \u00a0why?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wondered if you wanted to come, take a walk and talk, before I have to go to work?\u201d<\/p>\n
I gladly close my laptop, and I follow him into the garden.
\nOf course I would follow him anywhere, but this offer of just a few precious moments prove to be my greatest blessing.
\nI suppose, he knows this.<\/p>\n
And now, here I am writing this down, like anyone else would care. \u00a0 These simple beautiful moments which may sound inconsequential to some, \u00a0for me these things combine in the great expansion of my heart.\u00a0\u00a0 This is precisely what brings me back to the great magic of the practice of Gratitude.\u00a0 It is in the recognizing and appreciating, it is in the savouring and the stopping in just that moment to realize\u00a0all of life’s joy for me is here in these rather
\nsimple things .<\/p>\n
It is also my firm belief that if you open yourself up
\nto love
\n(regardless of how you may be feeling that day)
\nLove is always
\nthere
\nto be received.<\/p>\n
Love is always there …
\nand here<\/p>\n
even disguised as a little clump
\nof dirt. \u2665<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"