Prompt: Appreciate. What's the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?
I used to Poo Poo Gratitude. I thought it was for Stepford Wives or fakes who spouted Gratitude without knowing the meaning of it. And then I started practicing authentic gratitude and everything shifted. I have had a daily gratitude practice for more than ten years now, so one might think this question would be simple for me. It is and it isn't. Stay with me here.
To be specific: What have I come to appreciate in 2010?
There is something that happens when we ask questions. There are the responses that blurt out. Oftentimes these reflect our souls and oftentimes these are the habitually responses, like pushing "play" and after "How are you?" the response, "Fine" or "ok" or "no complaints" leaps from our mouth without thought.
That's why I had to go on a meandering thought path to get to this oh-so-unsexy-yet-supremely-sexy-and-sacred-response.
In 2010 I have come to appreciate PROCESS.
I have seen surprising and phenomenal results in 2010 from investing focus, energy and the investment in ongoing practice. I am seeing results from projects started and continued. I have gotten more press this year, more opportunities, more gigs - and more fruitful gigs, and more dreams-come-true and most importantly, the most appropriate and supportive ongoing educational plan for my son than I ever set out to manifest. I couldn't have planned most of what has taken place.
There is the fact that I have had an ongoing gratitude practice... yes, for ten years.
The fact that I have been writing my ezines and my blogs for a long, long time... more than ten years for my ezines. Almost 1,000 blog posts on my main blog (that will happen in January.)
The fact that I have volunteered on the Bakersfield City School District SELPA Community Advisory Committee and networked and educated myself and become a passionate advocate for education for all children with Special Needs.
The fact that I have consistently lead teleclasses for years ~ and said "I want to lead more in-person programs" and this year not only have I lead programs I generated, people have come to me and contracted with ME to lead THEIR programs - in one case, I have even gotten free additional training out of the deal.
I appreciate my own tenacity, my own ability to rise and fall with the flow and not let "stuff" get me down along the way.
How do I express gratitude for it? I make my lists, yes - and I continue to give voice to gratitude via sharing on twitter, on 43things, in conversations. I share the joy, widely and happily. I dance it, I sing it, I write it, I hug it, I pass my gratitude along in word-basket-care-packages.
I come alongside YOU and read YOUR posts and express gratitude for YOU, encouraging you to stick with it, to be tenacious, to know darkness doesn't last forever and besides, it isn't all bad when you allow yourself to become grateful for every color of the spectrum... even when some people rotely label those times as dark and dreary, we who love process know the light will come again and it will have a quality of sacredness we wouldn't have known by skimming the surface.
May you be blessed. May you love YOUR process. May your gratitude and appreciation grow. May you multiply it, today and tomorrow and tomorrow's tomorrow.
follow me on twitter: @juliejordanscot
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