Happy Thanksgiving week!  This is by far my favorite Thursday of the year as well as one of my absolute favorite holidays.  I savor the vibrant smells and tastes of seasonal comfort foods, the cozy roaring fire that cracks and burns in the fireplace, and I adore the fact that in this beautiful country of ours, we’ve managed to preserve the fourth Thursday of every November to remember, cherish, and give thanks over a meal.

Speaking of, many of you will sit down around a dinner table of some kind with loved ones and enter into a food coma at its finest in just a couple of days. Perhaps you’ve started the party early.  I sincerely hope you enjoy every bite and minute of your day. 

And some of you are in places of lonely transition. The holiday looks much different than you’d hoped and that Norman Rockwell ideal has once again vaporized into a wishful mist.  My heart knows the pain of similar loneliness and I pray you will find some light in the cracks of that thin space this week.

Wherever you are on your journey, I want to give you something to take with you, whatever your situation may be.  It’s a guided gratitude meditation you can practice beyond today and throughout this Holiday week and season.  I believe gratitude is one of the most powerful forces, turning the darkest skies a paler grey and shifting toxic, negative thoughts into grounded presence.  It’s always available to us and it’s totally free.  

As you navigate the coming days and weeks, I hope you’ll join me in practicing not only meditation but gratitude at every turn.  I’ve found that when I lose sight of gratitude, I start comparing my experience to others and become quite resentful. 

In an instant, gratitude shifts our focus from scarcity and fear to the wide-open spaces of graceful possibility.  Your inner dialog softens and your tired bones relax.  Just by saying, “thank you,” your heart may start to open.  We talked last week about how important openness and curiosity are if we are to receive good things in our lives.  In step with this, gratitude is like pouring rocket fuel on the process, accelerating this manifestation.

I’ll start us off right here and now with my deep and stirring gratitude that bubbles up in my heart daily:  I am grateful for you.  I’m grateful for your courage on the journey that’s brought you, in all of your beautiful brokenness, exactly where you sit today.   I’m inspired by your uniqueness and blown away that you show up and meet the world’s deep need for gifts and talents that only you can bring.  Thank you for being you, day after day.  Thank you, thank you thank you…

Here is a small token—a gratitude meditation practice. 

Love,

Katie