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Tag Archives: Gratitude

All That He Has Enabled . .

06 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Blessings, Celebration, God, Goodness, Gratitude, Happiness, Joy, Nature, Opportunity, Outdoors, Peace

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Celebration, God, Gratitude, Nature, Peace, Swimming

There is nothing quite as refreshing on a hot Summer day here in the desert than taking a dip in a freshly drained, thoroughly cleaned, and refilled pool! Mine has been recently given the full treatment, as it was more than ready for a surface refresh and clean water.  It took the better part of four days for my pool man to get it all done, but it finally got done by yesterday.  I looked forward to the opportunity to swim in the pool since draining it last week. And as the sun remained hidden behind a rather large pine tree hovering around 50-60 feet overhead, leaving the water shaded, I indulged in my habit of swimming laps early this morning. It was sublime and a fabulous way to begin a Summer’s day which will reach about 108 degrees Fahrenheit! 

The water was so clear and clean, I could see through my goggles the most minute particle of leaf or petal floating on its surface, rare as they were! The calm and quiet of the half-awake atmosphere all around me, at that early hour, made for the perfect opportunity to use my swimming routine as a time for reflection on other things! While slicing through the water, I focused on the gratitude I had for having such a perfect moment in life and for having such a wonderful personal space in which to dwell. Everything I have is on loan to me from God, so I want to take care of everything as best as I am able! And I purposefully want to celebrate the abundance of everything around me, and appreciate all the moments I have cognizant of those special people, things, and moments! God is so good, He provides everything for us, and we should honor Him by taking care of all that which is really His first! Even we are first His, so we honor Him by taking good care of ourselves!  

Rarely can I be so engulfed in serenity and peaceful calm as I was while swimming this morning! It was such peaceful surrender to the workout I was getting through the exertion and force my body made against the water as I swam repeated lengths of the pool with well-practiced and certain ability. It made for a wonderful chance to connect with God and to share with Him my gratitude and joy in all that He has enabled! After all, He made me able to swim each lap, He made the water, with its specific surface tension and molecular weight, and He made all the surrounding creatures and living matter in which I have come to dwell. God is so great! I hope I never forget to appreciate and to celebrate all His glorious creation and all that He enables, as well as all that He has provided in me, through me and to me!  

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Time Is Leaving Their Memory Behind . .

28 Sunday May 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Blessings, Courage, Freedom, God, Gratitude, Uncategorized

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Gratitude, Memorial Day, Military Service, Remembrance, Sacrifice

Today I had the tremendous honor of personally thanking and embracing two World War II veterans, who were called to stand for acknowledgment in front of the congregation at church, in honor of Memorial Day tomorrow. It surely was a momentous moment for our church, given how few of those from the greatest generation remain! Both these gentlemen, members of my church, are in their 90’s now. Time becomes more precious each and every day we are fortunate and blessed by their presence in our lives. And when speaking with one of the men named Joe, he mentioned how much more proud he becomes of his service in both WWII and the Korean War as time passes! I responded that my gratitude for all those who’ve served this nation has increased with age as well, given my heightened understanding of what such a sacrifice entails! It means time away from loved ones, the risk to life and limb, and it requires a heart of unselfish discipline often under unimaginable conditions!

Although Memorial Day is set aside for remembering our fallen servicemen and women, our church congregation chooses to single all veterans and active military out on each of the national holidays which honor our military. At the start of each service prior to, or on such an occasion, the minister(s) asks for those who’ve served in each conflict and war to stand to receive our grateful applause. Now some people object to confusing Memorial Day’s fallen recipients of honor with Veteran’s Day, which honors all those who’ve served – living and dead. But I believe there’s a pressing need to honor service whenever possible! In the case of those who served in WWII, time is leaving their memory behind and fewer veterans of that conflict are alive to serve as obvious reminders! I personally would rather be honoring their service and celebrating their presence among us rather than standing graveside with those same sentiments after they’ve passed! Too many of those who’ve served this great nation have gone to their deaths unaware of how very esteemed and infinitely valuable to the preservation of liberty their sacrifices were in service to our nation! What a shame it is to imagine how many men and women have sacrificed everything for the sake of securing and protecting this nation’s freedom without really knowing our full measure of gratitude! 

My heart aches for such overt love, as is mentioned in the Bible: John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.   And in this life, we are all “friends” in our common humanity. Surely those who sacrifice everything for this nation in the military service branches do so because they value their families, their loved ones, their communities, their neighbors, this nation and their freedom more than life itself! Preserving and protecting our precious freedom is reason enough for so many to choose to voluntarily enlist these days! Liberty persists because of the sacrifices of all those who serve this nation and for that, we cannot possibly express ample enough gratitude!

Memorial Day is a special day set aside to honor those who died in service to this nation and our hearts should be filled with somber gratitude and remembrances of them all. Such a history of personal sacrifice through voluntary and involuntary service to our nation throughout our history have cemented for us a continuous freedom, prosperity, and peace unrivaled by most other nations! Our nation’s history is filled with amazing heroism, valor, and personal sacrifice for the sake of preserving and protecting America for generations to come! But forgive those of us who take the opportunity to include veterans still living in our remembrances on this special patriotic day, especially those dear souls advancing in age who are within earshot of our accolades and our applause! We must take advantage of every opportunity we’re given to show them our gratitude, being thankful for their long, indelible lives as part of our nation’s most honorable contributions to the prevalence of freedom in the world! I wish you all a blessed Memorial Day! I pray for the families, loved ones, and souls of all those who perished in service to this nation, may God be with them all!  

 

The Last Gasp of Spring . .

16 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Blessings, Celebration, Change, Gratitude, Seasons

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Gardener, Gratitude, Joy, Nature, Seasons, Spring, Summer

I don’t wish to proclaim this week’s weather as the last grasp of Spring, but at today’s high of 77F, it is possible that this weekend’s 102F will only be the start of the Summer heat wave coming here in the South-west. It happens every year here in the desert, and after all the years I’ve lived here, I know that daily consecutive highs near 120F are coming eventually. May can be a hot month, hence today’s pleasant coolness on a mid-May day is a cause to celebrate! Most Summer days will fall anywhere between 105 and 115F on average. The sun is unrelenting here in Summer, up early and refusing to go down gently or coolly! It heats things up and keeps them heated from early morning until well after the sun has set like a typical desert. Often our nighttime lows won’t drop below the high 80’s to mid-90s. So, I cannot help but wish the days like today would linger a bit longer, as this weather seems to a gardener like me much gentler and easier than the hot days which are coming. But that is probably unreasonable just a few days away from the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The heat is inevitable, and I must savour this day and this cooler week while I can!  

The windows of my house have been open all day and I stayed home after an appointment earlier today just because I wanted to relish this weather! I began my day working out in the garden as I knew today would be advantageous for such activity! Next week this same time, the windows will be closed and the air conditioner will be running round the clock. And I probably won’t be out in the garden much past 9 a.m. in the morning. I am not a big fan of the heat that is coming, but I tolerate it and accept it every Summer because I get the great mild weather the rest of the year. Many people love the heat which closes up our houses in air conditioned comfort for months on end, but I really prefer the kind of weather like today’s which permits me to tend to the garden all throughout the day and to enjoy the songs of all the birds while breathing in fresh, cool air through open windows. That is not possible once the air conditioning days settle in, as the windows will be closed up tight 24 hours a day. Those days will then endure continuously until around October, as that is usually when the heat breaks, as the days shorten again and the nights start to cool. But that Autumnal break is months from now, and today is a gift I’m languishing in with gratitude as a swansong to Spring!  

Each year I feel the tease of Spring’s turn to Summer and Summer’s hopeful turn again towards Autumn. A desert Summer is an endurance event for my garden and for the gardener, me, who tends to all the plants! I must water potted plants daily, as to miss a day in Summer can mean a plant succumbs to desiccating dry winds and intense heat. I can’t do my usual chores without considering when and for how long, as the days heat up quickly and wear a gardener out quickly! I suppose a desert Summer is similar to Winter restrictions elsewhere, limiting and harsh by nature. Plants can go dormant, and I, in part, do as well! So today I am lingering under my open windows, out among the plants and animals,  loving every moment of this glorious return to Spring! 

Two Weeks Notice . .

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Empathy, Escape, Family, Gratitude, Lessons, Patience

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Empathy, Endurance, Gratitude, Patience, Sympathy

For most jobs you want to quit, you are advised to give a minimum two weeks notice. It’s considered polite and professional, as it enables both parties to contend with the shifting situation of the working relationship. An employee leaving his or her employment is giving the employer ample time to deal with the change in staffing. And an employer has that time to prepare, to replace, or to alter their staffing needs to accommodate such a change, if necessary. But there is one thing for which two weeks notice already seems too long and much too generous, and that is for a cold! I and other family members have had a cold now for two weeks, as of yesterday. We’re all more-than-ready to give this pesky illness our two weeks notice!  

Now let me interject first that I am usually never sick! I haven’t had a cold or any communicable illness for several years now. I don’t suffer from allergies, and I have a fairly strong immune system. But somehow, I brought this pesky and brutally persistent cold into this house. It could have been accidental contact with a “carrier”, and after the past two weeks, I would be prone to consider anyone who passed this beast on as such, HAHA! It could have been that I brought this on myself by working so hard in my garden in early April, preparing the landscape for the new warmer season ahead. For two weeks, I pruned, raked, swept, removed, and amended the landscape after Winter’s wear and tear. Perhaps something I breathed in during a profuse blooming season such as this one, or just the daily act of breathing in dust and spores firsthand, left me susceptible to spores, germs, or whatnot! However it came to pass, I can assure you this cold has worn out its welcome by now! 

For two solid weeks, I have done nothing much more than cough, sneeze, blow, rest and whine. And my family members have been my echoes in those activities! There isn’t much more we have felt like doing, even missing our Easter Sunday planned activities, and now we have passed the point of being tolerant of this forced schedule any longer. We didn’t want to spread this to others, so we endeavored to do as little as possible with our healthy friends, family, and strangers.  I admit readily that I am a most impatient patient! In fact, my family members and I have often discussed this particular version of the cold, pondering how we could be so done in by it. We’ve wondered if it is the gift that will keep on giving much longer, as we’ve had enough of all the symptoms and the remedies! But we have also pondered how those with chronic illness persist over time, enduring what they must with patience. This last two-week period with this cold has taught me to be immensely grateful for being so healthy usually, and to not take that normal state for granted ever! It has reminded me how wonderful it is to feel good! And of course, it has given me a whole new level of empathy and sympathy for those who must contend with health concerns far scarier, more intense, and more physically devastating than a cold! After all, in the grand scheme of things, a cold is relatively minor and we can envision the foreseeable future without it!  

But officially, I have given this cold my two weeks notice! I want to sever our ties, and break free from its hold upon my body and my life once and for all. I have things to do, places to go … well, you know the story! Two weeks just seems like long enough for a pesky cold with all its attending details. I don’t want to blow my nose, cough, take medicine or rest any longer. Time to move on, and I’ve given it enough time in all fairness. We all have! Since I gave this beast to my family members, as I was clearly the first one sick, I have also endured the guilt and shame of having passed such a monster to them! My mother, who also got sick while fussing over me, has proclaimed this the worst cold she has ever endured! Now surely giving your elderly mother such a beast as this is not something in which a daughter can be proud?! Today’s the day, it’s two weeks later, I’m moving on and so are the members of my family. We’re severing our ties with this particular virus! Adios, au revoir, auf wiedersehen and a big ciao to this two-week lesson in patient endurance! We’re surely saying our goodbyes with our renewed gratitude and our heightened empathy, lessons learned from our pesky “teacher”.   

 

New Day, New Week, New Season . .

20 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Contentment, Faith, Gratitude, Joy, Peace, Uncategorized

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Contentment, Gratitude, Joy, Peace

A new day, a new week, a new season, this day represents a new start for so many reasons!  Actually, every day is a new start.  We needn’t believe only certain days are important or more meaningful. Every single day we breathe and have life is important, meaningful, and truly exciting for the potential it represents! It’s just our perspective and our attitude which enables that mindset!  Every morning, upon awakening, it is our choice to view the day ahead with dread, in our despair, with our worries, or by choice, with the eyes of gratitude!  

If we begin each new day with the sense of how very special a gift it is, for the renewal and possibility it represents, we cannot help but be more grateful, more appreciative and also more excited to see how it plays out!  Too many of us begin our present day with the remnants of utter dread or despair from something hanging over from our yesterdays or with the fearful threat of all the unknown of our tomorrows.  Looking backward or forward all the time causes us to neglect the here and now.  That habit also causes us to dwell almost continuously in guilt, shame, regret, fear, and worry rather than trusting calm and peace.  And now is really all we have, even if we want to cling to our regrets or wrap ourselves up in our fearful worries! 

Our propensity to dwell in the past, to hang onto days we can no longer change, or to constantly evoke our inner fears about what is yet to come, is often the source of a lot of our life’s pain! The past is over and done! We can go forward, but we cannot change what occurred back then. And we cannot know exactly what will happen tomorrow or years from now, so why do we give so much of our today thinking we do? We cheat today of its fullness and its promise because we aren’t present! We lock ourselves up in emotional prisons of our own making, focusing only on things we feel about our past or things we dread about our future. We must learn the faith-filled habit of trusting God for all of our days, especially for our today. His grace is enough for today, and tomorrow, His grace will be new and provide for us then.  God’s grace is the key which opens our self-made prison cells. If we turn to Him for our keeping, letting our yesterdays have less weight upon our souls and giving every tomorrow a rest until we actually encounter it, we can turn our emotions towards all that brings us peace and calm within!  

I know, some of you are doubtful! You’ve carried those weights and burdens so long, they are now your badges of honor! You should take comfort in that which you’ve overcome, and surely you should feel what you must as things occur, but you shouldn’t let your emotions from one moment in your life hold you hostage for the rest of your life! And the fears you have about what may be in the future cannot and should not take one moment of your joy and peace from today! 

Today is the new day, a new week has begun, and a new season lies ahead! But today is the day! As each day begins, remember to center yourself in the purposeful awareness of how special, important, meaningful and promising that day is! God gives us each day as a gift, even if we’ve never seen it that way!  Let us endeavor to celebrate each new day as it is, for what it is, and to show our gratitude by making today a priority over all other days past and future!  Spend some time right now wherever you are focusing on today.  And anytime you choose to focus on your gratitude, you add infinite value to your life!  Gratitude always evokes emotions within us which are more positive, uplifting, calming and joyful! Today’s the day, get at it!  

A More Expansive Sense of Gratitude . .

02 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Blessings, Celebration, Choices, Contentment, Faith, God, Gratitude, Hope, Positivity

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Blessings, Contentment, Gratitude

Each day, I try to think of ways and things in which I am so grateful, blessings I acknowledge usually at the start or end of my day. But the other day, I was so overwhelmed within with the sensation of how rich my life has been overall! It was a definitive sense unlike any I  remember having had before! It seemed as though the Spirit within me was lifting me to a place of gratitude the likes of which I hadn’t known prior! It was a flood of sensation, with a highlight reel of my life passing through my mind simultaneously with the reflections I was having. In my heart and mind, I could take and comprise all that I had once enumerated singularly into something greater, bigger and more expansive. I could take my gratitude and place it upon my life in its entirety. I believe God was reminding me through the Spirit’s leading to stand strong in hope, faith and to remain contented, as He had provided so much for me throughout my life. My life in total reflects more than I often even remembered and my life’s value is more esteemable than those daily lists might reflect! Instead of having my daily list of things in which to be grateful to use as a means of silencing the fears, doubts, worries and consuming, disturbing emotions which stir within me during these unsettling days here on planet Earth, God was giving me (through the Spirit within me) a fuller, bigger and more expansive sense of gratitude to stand firm and strong anew each day! b2a67dd8106445a84c8262b5fa886f6d

 

I’ve always been loved, cared for, fed, clothed, housed, educated, and have had many opportunities to travel, explore and adventure in this life. I was born in the USA, which in itself, is a blessing for our commitment to human rights and freedom, as well as the richness of our nation. I’ve had so much joy and overcome so many things which surely could have been much worse, but for the grace of God. I have great parents (one surviving), siblings and grandparents (though all have passed). My family was always nurturing and full of love. I have lifelong friends who are like family. I have eyes, ears and a heart which sees the beauty of life around me each new day. I was given the gift of not shying from hard, physical work, which had taught me a lot about myself and my own abilities. And I have a desire to learn in spite of any fears, doubts, and worries which might stop me from trying. I persevere. And none of this is my doing! It has all been because of God’s grace, mercy and for His purposes. My role as a created being is to live according to His plans and purposes, a role I have learned to accept and in which I am content.  26e6c08e7627e39158a554ffd02bfa87

 

If you ask God to reveal His wonder in you, in others, in the world, He will! If you wonder about your own life, pray for Him to fill you with all the reminders and recollections of how He has cared for you and loved you through others and throughout your life! I’m so grateful for the richness of my life and all my blessings through His grace! Have I had it all? No. Do I have everything I would have wanted? No. But I have so much, have had so much, and am so full of gratitude, I don’t have a need to count or enumerate those things I might be missing! Let me always remain in this state, through the grace of the Lord, by the Spirit within me.  Signature02

A Spectrum of Blessings . .

23 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Blessings, Choices, Gratitude, Life, Wisdom

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Blessings, Gratitude, Love, Respect

I’ve read online the stories of at least four Americans missing in yesterday’s horrific terrorist bombing in Brussels. Two are an American married couple living in Brussels, who had taken her mother to the airport after a visit for her return flight to the USA and the other two a brother and sister who were returning to the United States from a trip abroad. No one in their families has heard from any of them since the bombing at the airport. I pray that by now they’ve been located and that their families know they are safe. It must be hell to all those involved to wait upon identification processes and release of information, especially for those whose relatives were visiting Belgium. And it must be utter chaos there, for the responders and those who witnessed the mayhem. I pray that all those who were lost have been located and/or identified. I pray for the families and friends of all those who perished, and all those who were injured to be surrounded by God’s healing grace, mercy and love. Just a trip to the airport (or subway) proved to be devastatingly life-altering for so many people.   8166bd303f49b37059e810ff885e33cc

We have to start viewing our lives through a spectrum of blessings, and not just because of horrible acts like this but every single day! To be alive and to have life, to be surrounded by comfort, to be rich with the love of the dear souls who fill our hearts, to have our health and well-being . . these are all true blessings for which we should be grateful anew each and every single day! All it takes is just one reminder to see how quickly life can instantaneously change . . a tremendous loss, an unexpected tragedy or a simple fateful choice can alter everything. Being consciously aware and grateful for our lives as they currently are is truly a way to give not only our own lives more value but also to give the lives of others that same worth.  appreciation-quotes-sayings-love-life-jack-kerouac1

None of us will manage to get out of this life unscathed! It’s a fact that we will suffer, be damaged and feel pain, whether physical, emotional or both! But in our living this life, we can choose to control our reactions and responses! We can look at things as blessings, feel gratitude and be thankful for everything which fills our lives and our hearts. We can choose to not let life pass us by filled with remorse, negativity or with any other emotion our reactions to things evoke! Life is precious, we know this within us. It is merely a matter to choose to be cognizant of that fact each moment of every day so that we don’t grow complacent, feel regret or miss opportunities to appreciate what or who is already around us or near us. Complacency is forgetting some thing’s or someone’s importance! Regrets are the nagging reminders of our complacency. And opportunities are often much more valuable and rare than they may seem. Life is precious. Live your life knowing, understanding and believing that with all your heart! Love your life and love the lives of others too.   Signature02

My Favorite “Gift” . .

05 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in aging, Attitude, Celebration, Choices, Christmas, Contentment, Family, Happiness, Joy, Love

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Christmas, Family, Gratitude

My favorite “gift”, over the recent holiday week between Christmas until just after New Year’s, was hearing from my family/friends that they appreciated the homemade treats I prepared for them and the home-cooked meals we shared together during that week. It’s nice to know that just the act of preparing a meal, sitting down together at home and appreciating the tastes  tailor-made for them was so welcome and worthwhile!   4a16ea037f3b62fc0dde89e57bdb6d5b

 

We set times for those meals and sat down at those times; then we prayed and took our leisure . . sans gizmos, outside influences and disruptions . .  to dine in peace, together. It was lovely! I think it helped to take the rush out of our days; and it gave us invaluable time being together eating and conversing! It really was a reminder of a different period of life, years ago, when our family and loved ones dining together throughout the day was a regular part of our lives. Now, we’re older, busier and strewn across the nation working on our careers; and some of our family and friends have passed on. It is not possible to share in those same precious moments of bonding and reunion each day. So it truly meant something to have the chance to recreate the experience during such a momentous and special time as Christmas with those who still could be together. We also did the same type of thing at Thanksgiving, but not to the same extent we did it at Christmas. With ten days off together between Christmas Eve and the weekend after New Year’s Day, we didn’t eat out once or skip one meal being together. We planned times and made that effort to share our meals, regardless the schedules we had to keep or the errands we had to run. 

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Some people might balk at such an effort these days! After all, don’t we all enjoy time away from one another? And surely, when we have our divided, blended, absentee, broken and any other manner of family, it would seem corny or almost impossible to do such a thing as bring family together at meals! Well, with time’s passage, I care more about what matters to my family and loved ones. And we valued this time, these efforts to connect and be with one another; and we also know that nothing, including time, is promised or guaranteed for any of us in the years ahead! We wouldn’t have traded that time and the simplicity of meals at home for any other manner of sharing this recent special week together! I’m so thankful for one more year having had that opportunity with dears, cooking and taking care of them in ways they don’t get to appreciate often, if at all, during the rest of their year. It meant something, it invoked sweet memories of loved ones who’ve passed; and it will serve to connect us with new and treasured memories of this year’s holiday! Family and friends are truly the best part of the holidays; and “gifts” such as knowing their appreciation and gratitude for that time spent together is truly priceless!  Signature02

Appreciation Must Not Wait . .

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Contentment, Gratitude

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Appreciation, Contentment, Gratitude

Appreciation must not wait until we have all we want or everything we think we need. To appreciate life means we start by assessing what we’ve already got or already have had as having value, knowing that even our breath and heart beating this day is reason for our gratitude. Often we become so empowered by our desires and wants that we forget to be thankful and content in all that in which we’ve already been blessed!   1240126_703685716311915_1942277022_n

Every day of life, every friend who walked beside us, every supportive and loving family member, every day of sunshine, each day of rain, every beautiful flower we beheld and each phenomenon we treasured, every mile we journeyed and every adventure we made it through safely, every day of good health and every thing we’ve overcome, every passage and every milestone, every significant matter and all achievements, every gift and each staple of our daily provision . . each and every second of every day of all of our lives we’ve been given something in which to appreciate life and to celebrate with gratitude! If only we would look at the sum of our lives, not measuring it by only what we’ve lost or never had. If only we would see the sum of great treasure which we inherited at birth, were given over time, met as dear souls, came upon as gifts to us, or have already earned by our labor and efforts. So many people are caught in what they’ve not gotten, that they forget to appreciate fully all that they’ve had. Many are mourning what they had and lost, not realizing all they still have left around them. Many never know to be thankful for their abundance even though by comparison, they would surely be assessed as more than blessed; they might even covet others for what seems enviable in their lives! And many never know to see even their own breath and heartbeat as valuable; for in each breath and in every beating heart lies the seed of life’s potential and plentiful reasons for gratitude.   246170384_5PTKhJj9_c

It’s so easy to forget all that life has placed within our reach, focusing on all that we’ve yet to grasp. And it’s even easier to proclaim our lives as worthless, unproductive or valueless when we measure our joy or success in terms of what we’ve lost or never gained, or in comparison to what others have. With appreciation, with gratitude, all of life starts to take on value; we realize all in which we’ve been blessed, even what we once might have taken for granted . . our breath and our beating hearts, our being alive! When we view our own lives through the eyes of gratitude and appreciation, we no longer put all of our focus on things which deplete us of our overall joy, contentment and peace of mind. Signature02

The Heart Decides . .

11 Monday May 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Celebration, Choices, Gratitude, Joy, Positivity

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Appreciation, Gratitude, Love

A calendar may designate a date, but the heart decides how often, why and when we’ll celebrate each one of our blessings! The heart needn’t stick to the calendar when it comes to showing our gratitude for all of our “gifts” past and present; or in honoring others who’ve brought such joy, love and pleasure to our lives.   DSC00166

A birthday, an anniversary, a remembrance, or a day set aside for special consideration are on the calendar usually once a year; but every day in between can be an equally important reminder of why we consider those earmarked days so significant! It’s the love and gratitude which fills our hearts and minds that dictates the meaning and significance of something or someone, not just a date set aside. And it only takes a change of circumstance to teach us the real meaning of a date on a calendar after all.

I only really learned to honor Father’s Day when the actual day set aside for that no longer applied to me in the same regard; when I could no longer have my day of celebration with him or give him gifts, the calendar day no longer meant a thing to me without him physically present. In fact the holiday caused me some pain for the loss of him for several years after his passing, watching others celebrate with their dads in ways I could no longer with mine. Now Father’s Day for me is every day I can spend time remembering him, it’s not just one day a year in which I am grateful or filled with memories or a sense of loss.   birthday-flowers-greetings

The human heart decides the meaning of our days, not a calendar. That is just a physical tool which serves to remind us of the meaning we already understand and appreciate from within. May all those people and reasons for which we find a day worthy of celebration know first how much gratitude and love we have for them every day, not just that one we’ve earmarked so conveniently or blatantly upon the annual calendar!  Signature02

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Cheryl Ries-Author & Model

Cheryl Ries-Author & Model

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