I am grateful, very grateful for much in my life.   I am blessed in many ways and yet, when I try to write about this it sounds trite and inauthentic.  I say all the things I should say, and everyone else says, and it doesn’t feel true.  Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for my family and that everything is safe in my life and all my needs are fulfilled.  I don’t take that for granted.  Ever.

I think it must be more than what I have, and how my life is, that is worth celebrating in gratitude. Maybe it’s the tiny things that matter most.  Like the one leaf that is stuck on the very top of the tree in our backyard.  How could it still be there after all the other leaves have fallen and been swept away? So simple and fragile and still hanging on.  Because it’s staying there I see the miraculous and have hope.

And I remember to look up.

You are reading this, and I don’t even know who you are.  With each post I am held by you.  You come back and read again.  You stay and connect, and though I don’t who you are, we are together in this world.  Bound by a simple thought or feeling.  That fact alone gives me hope.

I do my work out of love.  I say these words out of love.  I search, and wait, and listen, and find the courage to share.  Sometimes you write back and share what matters to you.  That alone makes me feel that all the struggle I have had in my life is worth it because it has brought me to this moment where I can hear what is important to you.  That is what matters to me most.  Knowing that we can share in love and truth.

Yeah, it’s small, and some of you try to put it back under wraps.  You feel too exposed and vulnerable. Some of you even wonder how I could be so exposed?  Yet because I am so open with you, and you feel something in response to that level of authenticity, we are transformed.  Something in each of us has shifted.  We are not the same as we were the moment before.  We let down our mask for a moment and allow real life, real vulnerability and real strength to fill us.

Like that single leaf hanging on the very top of the tree, it’s staying.  Even though all the others have gone, it’s staying for me.  And I am going to stay for you.  Honest, open and strong enough to stand alone so that you can feel the strength of your own vulnerability for a moment.  In that moment we grow a little stronger together.

I am here with you.

Thank you for being here with me.

Love Lessons