counting blessings Archives

Shout What You Love (Jessica’s Daily Affirmation)

In this great video, we see a little kid’s unique method of daily affirmations. So we tried it ourselves. It’s both uplifting and energizing.

Our Practice for the Last Week of the Year

We take the quiet last week of the year between Christmas and New Years to relax, unhook from many normal routines, and reflect on the year that has passed so we can envision the New.

‘The Good Life…Gives No Warning’ (Mark Strand)

Usually we think that only difficulties come without warning. It hadn’t occurred to us that harmony and abundance can seem to come without warning as well, until we read this from the Selected Poems of Mark Strand:

Seth Godin: Make Two Lists, then Choose

We were struck by Seth Godin’s recent post about the two lists we seem to carry with us at all times, which become apparent during a crisis or moment of doubt: one is the positives, the other, the negatives we perceive in our lives. His point: we have a choice in which we choose and…

Noticing Gratitude

A message came in from a reader today that knocked us out. It was forwarded from our friend and frequent contributor Susan Dworski:

Practice: Ask ‘What’s Not Wrong?’

The other day a friend sent us this image of a homeless person lying amidst a drawn virtual room. We have no doubt it was staged by an artist (whoever he/she is) but it still has a feeling of randomness, that life could ironically set things up that way. There are the symbols of a cozy…

2 powerful practices for when times get really rough

We were struck by this passage from Eliza Griswold’s New York Times review of A House in the Sky: A Memoir, Amanda Lindhout’s heart-wrenching story of being kidnapped and held for 460 days in Somalia: To withstand her anguish, she recited a catalog of the small gifts for which she was grateful: “my family at…

meditation practices for those who can’t sit still

Our recent Facebook post about alternative ways to meditate got a lot of hits. Its single line —’Can’t sit still when you meditate?: try turning everyday actions into a practice’ — told us that there are A LOT of people who have trouble sitting and meditating. So we thought we’d elaborate. The solution is an…

keith richards: simple philosophy of a master improviser

Dig this amazing picture of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards’ hands: the gnarled, expressive hands of a man whose been improvising (and pushing his luck) for most of his life. His perfect two-line philosophy and blessing: It’s good to be here, it’s good to be anywhere. via Wandering But Not Lost

thanks for the day after thanksgiving

Thanks to the word that gives thanks. Thanks to the gratitude for how excellently the word melts snow or iron.

slowing down and counting blessings

(Video link here; start at 4:50) We had a non-stop day, working on a big project, then racing back to write a post many hours late…wondering if we might write about lateness, or busyness or not-living-up-to-our-obligationness, which so many people we know are trying to figure out. We were poking around the files, half-written posts,…

reminder: get out there an enjoy it

Mondoblogo recently published this cell phone shot of a “my cousin’s” house AFTER a tornado set down on Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with these words: “He is a 1st year law student on full scholarship at U of A. (Roll Tide) He and his wife Ceci are lucky to be alive. They were trapped in their bathroom until…

thanks on an ordinary day

On an “ordinary” day, we found this photo in our Inbox, with a note: “A big fat sign and reminder of what’s important on a beautiful fall day.” And soon after, we found this post by Anne Herbert at Peace and Love and Noticing the Details: “I’m thankful that the morning sky is skidding across…

how to see what’s there

Although the title of this video is Jessica’s ‘Daily Affirmation’, we see it as a video of a little kid counting blessings. Not only does she list the stuff she has, she really LOVES it. Her fierce, slightly-playing-to-the-camera soliloquy is quite a celebration of the GREAT ordinary. We find that counting blessings, though seemingly New-Agey,…