LaTonya’s Gratitude Journal – Issue #1

I enjoy journaling about gratitude.  So I’ve decided to begin an online gratitude journal as an extension of my personal, internal and written process of experiencing gratefulness for the many blessings of my life.

So, today, I find myself grateful for (not in any particular order):

My Car

It allows me to do so much and transports me to fabulous places…

My Health

As I continue on my path of claiming a healthy, beautiful, vital, and energetic physical body, I am right now grateful for the fact that I can right now breathe, move, hear, see, smell, taste and touch perfectly!

My Immediate Family

I have two brothers and a Mother and Dad still on this Earth plane.  They are all wonderfully giving and loving individuals that I am blessed to have in my life.  However, a recent experience has helped to remind me of just how special they all are to me.

One of my favorite weekly webcast programs is the The View From the Goddess Light offered by the Silver Wings of Light group associated with Kirael.com. Last week, as a starter to that program, we completed a meditation in which we were guided to reflect back on ourselves at the ages of 10 years old, mid teenage years, 25 years old, etc., and recall our best friend at that time.  This was a very worthwhile process that I highly recommend for a variety of reasons, but it was a particularly beautiful experience for me this time because I recalled two very important things.

First I recalled that for almost all of my life, I have been my best friend.  There were many times, especially early on in my life that I did not treat the best friend of me very well, but my best friend of me has always stuck with me and been there for me through thick and thin.  For that I am grateful.

The exercise also led me back to one of my brothers.  I have two brothers.  One is older than I and he is one of the boldest, most courageous, kind, loving and generous people I know.  However, he was often off working with my Dad and for that and other reasons we didn’t often get much time to play together.  Despite that, I still love him dearly!  (Although, now that I’m thinking about it, one of my favorite memories of him was when he sang as the “lead” in our “band” where we did singing performances for my parents!)

My other brother though, the one younger than I, well he and I were constant play companions – we played things like “cars” together, we played “cops and robbers” together, we played “cooking”, “office”, and “store” together and we played “drawing” and “writing” together.  In fact, we used to have competitions about who had the best handwriting.  I recall winning most of those then, but after college, my handwriting changed so dramatically that I’m not sure who’d win today.  He was my friend, confidant and fellow warrior and adventurer at a very important and formative time of my life.

During the meditation, I expressed my thanks to my other best friends at different ages of my life, but I must admit that those few, precious, moments spent recalling what a wonderful best friend that brother was to me when I was 10 were priceless! I hope he’ll get a chance to read this soon and thereby receive another “thank you” in addition to the one I shared with him during the mediation.

Who was your best friend when you were 10, 15, 25, and 35 and on up years old?  How did that friendship serve you, improve your life, or help mold you into who you are today?

(Click here to go to Kirael.com to hear the audio recording of the short meditation I referenced above.  The topic of the June 3, 2009 discussion was:  “Changes in Me: How we meet the challenges in our lives.”)

Aahh, but I digress… Now back to what I’m grateful for…

The Experience of Life

Surprisingly, I am also grateful for the ups and downs of life.  As a recent post explains, last week was a challenge for me and I just recently emerged from what one might call a slump or period of low excitement– I’d joyously played and played through life to the point of depleting my well and had to take some time to recharge. As I progress through life, I will continue to find ways to spend more and more time within the midpoint of life, the balance of life that is peace.  However, I also realize that without the down times, the joy and elation of the up times would be meaningless, uneventful and unrecognizable.

For Being Here on the Planet Right Now

This is a very special time on Earth right now.  Mother Earth is ascending, vibrations are increasing and much is shifting both on the planet and within our physical bodies.  I am grateful just to be here on the planet during this current evolutionary process and vow to serve in ways that are for the Highest Good of myself, the planet and humanity as a whole.

What are you grateful for?  What are you most excited to have in your life right now?  Feel free to leave a comment declaring what you’re grateful for to the world!

The list of what I’m grateful for could go on and on.  Including part of my gratitude writings online is a new journey for me and I am glad to be able to share this part of me with you!  Check back next week for the next edition of LaTonya’s Gratitude Journal!