Chapters

Life is a series of chapters. Like wedding vows, life is better and worse, richer and poorer, sickness and health. And it is mix and match. A chapter might be better and poorer or richer and sickness.
My life has been richly blessed. Unequivocally. And I was blessed to be raised to recognize and celebrate the joy in all chapters. Every one.
The challenge for me is not ever, "why me/why now/why this?". Rather, my struggle as a mother, a grandmother, a friend, is when the true and genuine needs of one child/grandchild/loved one, while easy to meet, in fact, causes true and genuine pain for another one.
It seems simple when our own chapters are mixed, but when the chapters of the ones I love don't mix and match, how do I juggle that? How to give wise council? How to make choices that celebrate one even while accepting that another is hurting? That is the challenge I face.
One rich and wonderful chapter of my life has just drawn to a close. It was joyous, it was painful.
The next chapter is on the horizon. I would love for it to be only joyous, but somehow, I expect it will be a mixed bag: pleasure and pain, delight and distress, joy and sorrow.
Still, my life is richly blessed. Unequivocally.
I hope, at the beginning and end of each chapter, that all of the people I love can say the same.

Gratitude

Thanks Giving. A full time job if, like me, your life is blessed with a family who loves you and enough.
What is enough and why is it so different from one to another?
I have enough food, enough money to make ends meet - or come close - and enough to share without too much discomfort.
I have enough heat and a fan, enough water, enough rest - except when I stay up too late on a work night and play here on the computer.
I have enough love; enough coming in and enough going out. That keeps love from getting stagnant you know, when you share it.
I have enough clothes to wear, and most of them fit.

That is a lot to be thankful for. Don't you agree?

My niece, Sarah Kipp, is an amazing woman who is making it a practice to keep a daily journal entry about all that she is grateful for. I write on it every few days because I applaud her efforts and because it makes me feel good.

That's right. Keeping track of my blessings, my abundance, makes me feel better. Just like she said it would. In fact, it makes me feel GREAT!
soooooo,,,,,,,,,

I have decided to regularly jot down a note of my own gratitudes here at
The Quest House, A place of Healing and Inspiration.
What could possibly be more healing or inspiring than giving thanks?

Read along,
comment often, and add your own blessings.

Sarah's motto is
Transforming the World... One Thank You at a Time.

Amen I say to that, Amen.

for your reading pleasure, and for inspiration, her links are

http://www.gratitudegala.blogspot.com/
http://sites.google.com/site/gratitudegala2010/letter

enjoy

oh, lest i forget, today I am thankful for you, the folks that make my time here worthwhile, the ones who let me know I have inspired them with my words, the ones who laugh, yup, you. That's what I am grateful for today.
joyfully, beverly

Wondering what to do?

Sign up for Walking with Wonder!!!

Starting tomorrow. This daily writing exercise is designed to open your eyes to the smallest of wonders in each and every day. Using the Radmacher Focus Phrase™ process you will be sent a phrase each night and write three paragraphs to me each evening for three consecutive weeks,Monday to Friday.
Don't over think this decision. For $129. you can end your summer having "seen" all there was to see in these last few weeks.
This is what some of my writers have said of this experience -

I would recommend this to anyone who, like me, feels that they "don't have much to say" because most days I found I had a lot to say! FC, Rhinebeck

This process really opens your eyes and your heart and Beverly really knows how to guide you. SP, Clinton

Contact me at bkipp@frontiernet.net to sign up We Start Tomorrow!!!
Joyfully, Beverly