Recreating YOU with Transforming New Year’s Gratefuls
over 12 Days of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas I was grateful for PEACE; the kind that comes when you know you have done your best and somehow it wasn’t good enough. The results aren’t there. What if this time they won’t ever be there? You don’t know if you have it in you to try again tomorrow but then you remember the part in the beautiful poem your dear friend sent: “Help me to know the restoring power of sleep.” Sleep comes; peace comes, tomorrow comes. It’s a new day and you are able to repeat the process until finally one day the results do come and with it a new kind of peace you own.
On the second day of Christmas I was grateful for COURAGE; the kind you need when you know it’s time to go back to the doctor. You believe in your deepest self the results will be scary; but you have been down this road before. Things can be fixed, reversed, overcome, with great medicine. You can go and find out what needs to be done and you can get yourself back to a healthy state. You do have the courage to go again and deal with what needs to be done.
On the third day of Christmas I was grateful for LAUGHTER – with SISTERS who have always been a catalyst to set you off in crazy verbal jargon that caused you both to laugh again like ten year olds in the midst of serious adult crises: at funerals, sharing the most bizarre of life’s turn of events and finding a way to laugh in hour long phone calls thousands of miles apart or in person.
On the fourth day of Christmas I was grateful for BROTHERS, who by contrast to you, in just a few words or a small gesture, can leave memories on your heart and you are never ever the same because of the beauty and the power in their depth and simplicity.
On the fifth day of Christmas I was grateful for FRIENDS. Friends that you never knew yesterday and those you have known forever and those who have left you here in the world without them, far too soon and sometimes with no warning that the lunch you had just a few weeks ago was going to be your last lunch. Oh my, these friends are such gifts! Their genuine, steadfast, authentic caring and support has sometimes been the difference on a day that presented a mountain you had no way of climbing and then you reach the top together.
On the sixth of Christmas I was grateful for DOCTORS who find a way to say what needs to be said, to be honest in the gentlest possible way and who realize you have a right to know what they know about you – it’s your life. They tell you only one in 4 survive, that people can die from this, that you will need radical surgery on your face – and then they take the action, however overwhelmingly drastic as may be required; they apply their skills and knowledge and they empower you to find a way to trust them and believe that together you will find a way back to good health and you will be that one in 4, this is not your time.
On the seventh day of Christmas I was grateful for the UNKNOWN – scary, uncertain sometimes, generating feelings of hopelessness – when all you can see and feel are the failures and losses, when it seems void of all possibilities of any retrieval of success and financial stability. But deep within you know that the unknown equals the very faith that brought you this far; the unknown holds the unimaginable of all the hope and possibilities that the best is yet to come. You’ve lived the unknown before, you know it to be true, and it is all there waiting for you in the unknown.
On the eighth day of Christmas I was grateful for SECOND CHANCES. When you are absorbed with one “if only” thought after another; you are consumed with regret, you blame yourself, you remember how you could have acted sooner, said it differently, made that phone call on their birthday, told them you were sorry sooner, forgiven them when they didn’t even know they needed to be forgiven, and here it is – the moment to make yesterday right and tomorrow beautiful. You get a second chance and this time you recognize it in the moment – you act quickly.
On the ninth day of Christmas I was grateful for CHILDREN – the young ones that help you continue to see the magic in the world through their innocent eyes; but most of all for MY OWN CHILDREN. They keep you humble and grow your wisdom and insight through their honesty, integrity, joys and sorrows; when you want to be like the fairy godmother who can wave a magic wand and make their world abundant and free of the anguish of life’s sometimes cruel realities. Your children remind you all you can do is love them and let them go and trust in the goodness of the Universe.
On the tenth day of Christmas I was grateful for INSTINCT – the kind that finds a way to reach you at the strangest times, to let you know “something is wrong” and you need to take action, or something could happen if you just make that phone call, go to that meeting, buy that book and read it, take that course. It is when you find yourself saying, “I don’t know why, something just told me I should”; you found a way to trust your instinct. It takes quiet, still meditative moments in the stillness and solitude of your thoughts so you can be listening and your instincts can be heard.
On the eleventh day of Christmas I was grateful for TIME – lost time, found time, stolen time and learning to value time as your best way to package your dreams. Name the designated exact time and day you will strive to make something happen. Take the time to write it down in a calendar, a journal, on a napkin; give your vision a time and a place. The value of time holds the secret to your success, your vision, and your dreams, – it is in the time.
On the twelfth day of Christmas I was grateful for SIMPLICITY. Over a hundred ornaments taking up space, books on shelves that will never be read, clothes from decades ago that will never be worn again, hundreds of cards, calendars and pictures, too many to ever look at and appreciate, decorations for every occasion of the year and no space to even display them, pictures and not enough walls to hang them, furniture intended for three to four times the square footage you now live in, papers you have filed for literally years, way beyond the government 7 year guidelines for businesses that could all be shredded and never missed! How do we get to that simple life and create the space to enjoy life and become all we were intended to be, without the clutter and confusion and overwhelm of all this stuff? One day it comes to us, we have the power, the time is now and these things need a new home. You find the courage and the time and the support from family and friends; you begin the journey back to a simplicity that creates the space you need to make the rest of your life the best of your life and that to be sure is an Olympic goal of massive proportions! Go for the Gold! It is not too late; you are still breathing, make it this New Years!
You can recreate the most magical you at any age, at any moment. It is a choice – YOU choose. Jumpstart 2017 with your own gratefuls!
Send me your successes for it is in sharing that we empower each other!
