Simply Thankful

 

I am simply thankful.

Thankful for the relatively clean air I get to breathe every moment of every day. Have you ever just stopped to breathe? I mean really STOP. First, go outside. Close your eyes. Empty your mind, free and clear of all thought, all worries, all stresses, all responsibilities… stripping away everything until it’s just you… raw you.

Feel the breeze gently brush across your cheeks, tickling and tempting a smile from your face. Savor the aroma that dances across your senses. Slowly and deeply, breathe in until your lungs are overflowing with air causing seepage to fill every nook and crevasse of your existence.

Hold that breath, for just a moment. Then calmly and controlled, release it. Release it all. Everything, from every pore of your body until the tips of your fingers and toes begins to tingle. Let it all go. Now open your eyes. You’re alive.

I am simply thankful.

Thankful for being graced with the simple and complex beauty of vision, even though I require spectacle assistance. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing some of the nature’s most awe-inspiring displays of art with its gifts of sunrises and sunsets. You have to wake up early to catch it, but the sunrises are worth the ever-lasting, albeit short-lived, daily occurrence.

To begin your day with such a vision of beauty, hope, colorful passion and energy is motivation at its finest. The sunsets… Oh, the glorious sunsets! The depth of the sky as it drifts away into the night leaves me feeling satisfied and sometimes exotic, like a magical faraway island known to only a few elite.

The sunset is a farewell to the day and a gateway into the mysterious night. If you stop to appreciate as many sunrises and sunsets as you can you will become more thankful for each day you are given.

I am simply thankful.

Thankful for the moon. My beloved moon. It has given me light in the darkest of nights, comforting and protecting my soul when it was most fragile. It holds the secrets I whisper in a fortress of forever keepers granting me the peace to rest my spirit. Yes indeed, oh so thankful for the moon.

I am simply thankful.

Thankful for all the unique individuals, human and animal, I have come across in my life regardless of the duration or influence – positive or negative. You see, every single soul I have met in my life has taught me a lesson, given me an experience, taken me on an adventure, led me to the path I needed to be on, or perhaps a path to avoid.

Every smile, every tear, every hug, every denial all helped create me. Every living thing I have come in contact with has helped me grow. Maybe you were the sun, giving me vitamins and light. Perhaps you were the rain, watering me. You might have been the dirt where I placed my roots.

You could have been the bee, passing by to pollinate and spread the word of your learnings to all. Maybe you were the fertilizer I consumed to help make me strong. Whatever role you played in creating me and helping me grow, I am thankful.

I am simply thankful.

Thankful for love, in all its glorious forms. From the every day little miracles like coffee, hugs and puppy kisses to the bond of family, the laughter of friends and the embrace of lovers, love truly is a remarkable feeling.

From its best to its worst, love will make a heart soar to the heavens with the swiftness and strength of an eagle conquering anything in its way, and love will crush a heart into a bleeding puddle of nothingness sending it into a black abyss to await an endless death. Ah, yes, love is truly a remarkable feeling.

I could go on and on about all the little and big things I am thankful for. The list is quite endless when you really stop to think about it. But today, every day really but especially today, I am simply thankful.