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Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile and a grateful heart
Week ten (August 28 - September 3)
Each day I awaken with a new sense of gratitude when I notice the gifts that abundance delivers. A night at the camper revitalizes my love for nature, well except for those spiders, and I easily create lists of love. The simple moments of having my family together around...

"You've always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself"  ~ The Wizard of Oz
Week Nine (August 21 - August 27)
Recently I began a course on small courage from my friend Ruth Clark. Just the mention of discovering our courage reminded me of an earlier time when I was first provoked to seek the bravery within.
It was 2006 and a group of friends were planning a trip to New...

"Life is a balance of holding on and letting go" ~Rumi
Week Eight (Aug 14-20)
Summer has been non-stop with parties, weddings, travel and lots of running, and while I savor each and every piece of it, sometimes the overloaded calendar can be too much and I long for quiet. Unearthing time between adventure and avoidance is a bit of a balancing act that I continually struggle to achieve. Either...

"I run for peace, strength, health and balance. I run because I can and she cannot. I run because there are days when the heartache is impossible and I must extract something to be grateful for." 
 ~ Tina Zarlenga
Today marks three-years since the removal of Deb’s brain tumor, the timeline where doctors roughly estimate your recovery stalls to nothing, but that does not satisfy us, if there...

"Find your tribe, love them hard" ~Danielle La Porte
Week Seven (Aug 7-13)
This week has been filled with celebrations, the start of the Olympics and an amazing concert, opportunities that easily illuminate gratitude, but even on the good weeks I find myself extracting pieces of the past to the crossroads where choice changes us and pain corrodes what is left. 
Recalling the restarts, when...

Week six (July 31- August 6)
Six weeks into my 52 weeks of gratitude and I have cultivated a habit that has flourished with possibility  as I recognize the bounty of gifts present in each day. To implement change in any habit, good or bad we just need to begin.
In order to coordinate change I began by focusing on ways to satisfy the negative with a positive, combining a new habit with...

"When deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive" ~Nelson Mandela
Week five  (July 24-July 30)
As I move through life uncovering forgiveness became a fundamental piece of mental health with powerful lessons of love and loss. Each time I acknowledge the gratitude in my days, settled nearby is a discussion of forgiveness which guides the potential of joy and grace that lead...

"Gratitude opens the door to... the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude."  ~Deepak Chopra 
Week four  (July 17-July 23) 
I cannot believe we are already four weeks into the #52weeksofgratitude, on average a habit takes 21 days to set and at the end of each day as I fill my journal with my lists of gratitude, I believe the habit of practicing...

"It's not JOY that makes us grateful, it is GRATITUDE that makes us joyful."
Week three (July 10 - July 16)
My life is far from perfect; many bumps along this road have steered me off course. Some arrived from the choices I have made and others from events beyond my control, all of them lessons to demonstrate the capacity of gratitude.
Losing Ryan so young illustrated concerns many will...

"Gratitude changes the lens with which we view the world"
Week two (July 3-July 9)
During the hard stuff I often want to flee. Escape was the only message my brain sent in the "fight or flight" scenario, launching a scurry to remove the pain by creating a habit of avoidance and sabotaging my authenticity. And then over time the occasional glass of wine sprouted into a comfortable routine which...