Welcome and Today's Top Five

I would like to welcome Heidi York Gerkin and Renee Autherson Brown to the world of blogging. Their blogs have been added to my link list. I met Heidi at Miss Greater Columbus when she competed there and Renee is a fellow Mrs. Ohio sister of mine. Hopefully one of them will teach how to post photos!!!

I received an amazing e-mail yesterday from a friend of mine. I would like to share it now for the message that came across and add mine to it:

Thank you By Oprah Winfrey

I live in the space of thankfulness - and I have
been rewarded a million times over for it. I started
out giving thanks for small things, and the more
thankful I became, the more my bounty increased.

That's because what you focus on expands, and when
you focus on the goodness in your life, you create
more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money
flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter
what happened in my life.

"Say thank you!" Those words from my friend and
mentor Maya Angelou turned my life around. One day
about ten years ago, I was sitting in my bathroom with
the door closed and the toilet lid down, booing and
ahooing on the phone so uncontrollably that I was
incoherent.

"Stop it! Stop it right now and say thank you!" Maya
chided. "But - you don't understand," I sobbed. To
this day, I can't remember what it was that had me so
far gone, which only proves the point Maya was trying
to make. "I do understand," she told me. "I want to
hear you say it now. Out loud. 'Thank you.'"

Tentatively, I repeated it:
"Thank you - but what am I saying thank you for?"

"You're saying thank you," Maya said, "because your
faith is so strong that you don't doubt that whatever
the problem, you'll get through it.

You're saying thank you because you know that even in
the eye of the storm, God has put a rainbow in the
clouds. You're saying thank you because you know
there's no problem created that can compare to the
Creator of all things. Say thank you!"

So I did - and still do. Only now I do it every day.

I kept a gratitude journal, as Sarah Ban Breathnach
suggests in Simple Abundance, listing at least five
things that I'm grateful for. My list includes small
pleasures: the feel of Kentucky bluegrass under my feet
(like damp silk); a walk in the woods with all nine
of my dogs and my cocker spaniel Sophie trying to keep
up; cooking fried green tomatoes with Stedman and
eating them while they're hot; reading a good book and
knowing another awaits.

My thank-you list also includes things too important
to take for granted:

an "okay" mammogram, friends who love me, 15 years at
the same job (and loving it more than the first day I
started), a chance to share my vision for a better
life, staying centered, having financial security. I
won't kid you, having money for all the things I want
is a blessing. But as I look back over my journals,
which I've kept since I was 15 years old, 99 percent
of what brought me real joy had nothing to do with
money. (It had a lot to do with food, however.)

It's not easy being grateful all the time. But it's
when you feel least thankful that you are most in need
of what gratitude can give you:

PERSPECTIVE. Just knowing you have that daily list to
complete allows you to look at your day differently,
with an awareness of every sweet gesture and kind
thought passed your way. When you learn to say thank
you, you see the world anew. And as Meister Eckhart so eloquently
stated:

"If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life
is 'Thank you', that would suffice."

Here are my Top 5:

1) That I still have both of my parents living today.
2) I have a beautiful son that brings me great joy everyday.
3) I have a husband who is willing to take care of me and make me happy.
4) I am surrounded by friends who care about me.
5) I have been blessed with many amazing experiences in my life.