Ray of Sunshine: Try this Recipe

Recipe for Living Well

Equal parts of the following: Spread joy. Be loving and kind. Give generously. Give thanks. Embrace your inner wisdom. Seek to understand. Come from a place of respect. 

Blessings for your day and week. Spread sunshine. Be the light.

Sunday Sunshine: I'm Thankful for All I Have

We have officially entered November today -- that lovely month of Thanksgiving. 

Rather than confine that sense of gratitude to only one day, consider counting your blessings every single day this month.

Reportedly, it takes around 30 days to re-wire your brain to adopt a new habit or shed an old, less-desirable one. Use this month's 30 days to name your blessings every day -- perhaps upon awakening, at meal time or before falling asleep at night.

Name just one blessing in your life each day this month and realize just how very rich you are.

Today, this week: Remember that your life is rich and abundant. Name your blessings. Be grateful for all that you have.

Sunday Sunshine: Be a Blessing

As human beings, our wants are often greater than our needs. When we pause and reflect on our blessings, both large and small, grand and everyday, immediate and evergreen, everything changes.

When we're grateful, we often find that what we have is enough. There is peace in knowing that it is all enough. There is no need for more. What we have is already blessing.

And when we feel blessed, we often find that there is enough blessing inside of us to share them with others. That sharing of blessing doesn’t have to be big or grandiose. It can be small, everyday and ordinary, such as purchasing a few extra nonperishable foods for your local food bank, calling a homebound friend for some conversation, opening the door for someone as you both enter a building or writing a note of thanks for a kindness expressed to you.

Those small acts reflect good in the world. That goodness will have a ripple effect, extending goodness again and again and again.

Today, this week: Look for ways each day to be a blessing to others. Reflect all that is good.

Sunday Sunshine: Live a Life of Thanksgiving

It's the week of Thanksgiving, that lovely holiday when we reflect on all that is good, all that is blessing. Often on that day we gather with others to share our bounty. Often, we break bread together, sharing a meal of larger-than-normal proportions. 

Perhaps your Thanksgiving table will be laden with turkey, dressing, cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy, that ubiquitous green bean casserole, and maybe even a pie or two. Perhaps those around your table will hold hands, share laughs, share love. 

Or perhaps your Thanksgiving will be quiet, maybe just you or maybe in an intimate experience with one other person or a small group. Perhaps your meal won't be of feast-like proportions.

In whatever ways you spend the holiday this week, whether quiet or loud, solo or surrounded by family and friends, we all share the same opportunity to enjoy it with a spirit of thanksgiving -- giving thanks for what you have in your life.

As you express your gratitude for your blessings, spread that gratitude, joy and love beyond Thanksgiving to the other days in your life. Being thankful shouldn't be reserved for only one day a year in November. Make the most of every single day by treating it as a gift to be savored and appreciated. 

We each have abundance in our lives. When we spend time reflecting on that abundance, it becomes clearer to us and our opportunities for thanksgiving grow.

Today, this week, this Thanksgiving: Be thankful for the abundance in your life. Spread bountifully your gratitude, joy and love. 

The Quiet Grace of Gratitude

"What would you do if you woke up tomorrow morning and all you had is what you thanked God for yesterday?" That message, which landed on my Facebook timeline several months ago, made me pause as it reminded me of the quiet grace of gratitude.

Gratitude isn't showy, bossy or bold. Gratitude is a quiet state of knowing, a peaceful place of blessing. 

Gratitude seems to be the perfect theme for November, a month marked by not only the American holiday of Thanksgiving, but also the quieting of nature. After the vibrant colors of summer followed by the crayon box of brilliant hues in October, November arrives appropriately in shades of tan and taupe. With it comes the opportunity to pause, to soak up the silence and to be grateful -- even to be grateful for making time to be grateful.

As human beings, our wants are often greater than our needs. When we pause and reflect on our blessings, both large and small, grand and everyday, immediate and evergreen, everything changes. When we're grateful, we often find that what we have is enough. There is a quiet peace in having that deep knowing that it is all enough, there is no need for more, what we have is already blessing.

As I joined three others from my church at an out-of-state conference last year, our pastor led us in prayer before we embarked on our road trip and before each meal. It didn't matter if we were at a fast-food restaurant or taking our sandwich with us in the car, she made sure that we spent a moment in reflection and prayer that always included the words "thank you."

One of those pre-meal reflections was based on a tradition in her household where those dining together share something aloud for which they are grateful that day. I found, as I always do, that when I am forced to think about my blessings, they seem to bubble up in such abundance that naming one blessing isn't sufficient.

As a child, our family's meal prayer consisted of these lovely words: "Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank you for the food we eat. Thank you for the birds that sing. Thank you, God, for everything."

I haven't said that prayer for a long time, but its words are affixed to my childhood memories and I realize that I should say them more often. As I look at those 26 words now, I see that they say it all. The prayer focuses on the good that surrounds us and is inside of us, the magnificence found in the details of the natural world, the blessing of having food to nourish our bodies, and the realization that everything, everything is blessing.

Everything is blessing. Everything.

As an adult, I often experience overwhelming feelings of gratitude. Those feelings are likely fueled by the daily conditioning I do of naming three things for which I'm grateful upon awakening and then repeating the practice before I fall asleep at night. The act of framing my day in gratitude affects my perspective all day long.

How do you experience the quiet grace of gratitude? Take a cue from the gentle shades of November and sit quietly, if only for a few moments each day, to express your thanks. Everything is blessing. Everything. May you feel blessed today and every day.

Sunday Sunshine: State of Gratitude

How do you normally begin your day? Is it a struggle to get out of bed? Or do you leap out of bed, ready for whatever the new day brings? 

Do you first think about your worries when you awaken? Or do you start the day with a happy heart?

Begin your day in a state of gratitude. When you are thankful, you set the tone for more good things to happen.

It's as if gratitude is a magnet. The more grateful you are for what you already have, the more reasons to be grateful appear in your life. It's all about your perspective. 

There's always, always, always something to be thankful for. Start your day thinking about those blessings. It changes everything.

Today, this week: Begin your day in a state of gratitude and watch your blessings multiply.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Celebrate! Give Thanks!

It's the week after Thanksgiving, but that doesn't mean that thanksgiving is over. 

In the 1970s, a song called Celebrate was made popular by the musical group Three Dog Night. The lyrics to that song called us to “Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music.”

Look up! Smile! Celebrate! Dance the joyful dance of gratitude for all that you have in your life. Invite others to join in that dance with you, passing your blessings freely on to them.

Today, this week: Give thanks for the abundance in your life. Feel the light in those blessings. Then, share that light with others.

Now Thank We All Our God

On this first day of November, my thoughts go to thanks and to the lovely hymn, "Now Thank We All Our God." I have been making it a practice for several years to list three things for which I'm grateful upon awakening and again before I go to sleep at night. Such daily and nightly exercises help me keep perspective in the face of the myriad stresses, both major and minor, that can clog up my day. It's easy to get bogged down with the "have-nots" when my life is actually so filled with "haves." By reminding myself of just three things for which to be grateful, I become more centered, positive and hopeful. Recently, I ran into a friend who I don't have the opportunity to see often. One of her first questions to me was to ask about my health. Then, she reminded me ever so wisely that if we have our health and happiness, we pretty much have everything that we need. Just a month earlier, I had suffered a health scare that, fortunately, turned out to be nothing worrisome. However, my friend's words about health and happiness reminded me of the worry I had experienced just a few weeks prior. Health and happiness are linked, but they don't necessarily have to be. I know of numerous people who have taught me the lesson that one's health doesn't have to have power over one's happiness. While one benefits from the other, it is possible to experience happiness even when our health isn't where we would like it to be. Being grateful for each day and saying it with our "hearts and hands and voices" is what Thanksgiving is all about, and Thanksgiving should really be every day.

Give Thanks Always

A gentleman in our community provides joy to passersby in a unique, creative way.  He has an extraordinary talent of taking ordinary stick figures that he's made of wood and hinges and turning them into clever tableaus in his front yard located on a busy local thoroughfare.  The stick-figure scenes are changed on a regular basis, usually every week or two.  Sometimes his creations make me laugh.  Other times, they make me think. But, always, they make me smile with appreciation.  His themes run the gamut but quite often, the focus is on seasons and holidays.  His latest yard creation depicts a man and woman seated at a table, heads bowed praying.  A sign accompanying the scene reads "Give Thanks Always."  What a wonderful reminder to us that Thanksgiving is not a day but a state of being.  By giving thanks always, we recognize that there are blessings to be appreciated each and every day.