108 Things I’m Grateful For

My friend and spiritual advisor, Rev. Guy Williams, Senior Minister at The Hilltop Center For Spiritual Living (check out the Global Heart Vision part way down on the home page) once challenged me and then fellow classmates to count out 100 things we were grateful for daily. I liked the idea but found it difficult to keep track of the count. It dawned on me that I had a set of mala beads – often called the Buddhist rosary. It has 108 beads and it became simple to keep track using those.

So here’s my list today. I’ve found that the more I count out 108 things I’m grateful for, the more I become truly grateful during the days of my life.

Try it. It will take awhile the first few times, but then you’ll get good at it and find it doesn’t take much time at all.

1. My readers
2. Cait
3. Carol
4. Carol
5. Kara
6. Martin
7. Mike
8. Linda
9. Steve
10. Cole
11. Valerie
12. Stacey
13. Gloria
14. Emily
15. Ben
16. My computer
17. My keyboard
18. MzTiz, the cat who lives with me.
19. The World Beat Sanga
20. Zen
21. Bill Wilson
22. John Henderson
23. Roger
24. Andrew
25. Telephone meetings
26. Face to face meetings
27. Freedom from nicotine
28. Freedom from alcohol
29. Freedom from drugs
30. Freedom from debt
31. Freedom from underearning
32. My writing ability
33. My clients
34. My iPad
35. My net connection
36. My wireless connection
37. Electricity
38. Gas
39. Clean water
40. Hot water
41. Lights
42. Windows
43. Fresh air
44. The canyon I look at from my home office window
45. The yucca plants that bloom there
46. The birds that play there for me.
47. The  Eucalyptus trees in that canyon
48. The scent of those trees
49. The vegetable garden
50. The rose bush
51. The succulents a friend gave me
52. The deck that overlooks the canyon
53. Apple pie
54. Dark turkey meat
55. My car
56. My car’s tires
57. My car’s engine which is strong even at well over 200,000 miles.
58. The roman shade that is almost finished
59. The sewing machine
60. Electric space heater at my feet
61. Books to read
62. Books to write
63. Helen Chang
64. Laurie Friedman
65. Lori Widmer
66. My mastermind group.
67. Stephenie
68. My three rugs – each special in its own way.
69. My couch
70. My recliner
71. My desk
72. Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude prayer
73. Eggs
74. Good coffee
75. My espresso maker
76. Half and half
77. Shrimp
78. Trader Joe’s stir fry vegies
79. My telephone
80. My cellphone
81. The table Carol gave me
82. The bench
83. The patio table
84. The patio chairs
85. The umbrella
86. Becky
87. The fountain Becky gave me
88. Ellie
89. The new blog Ellie and I are putting together
90. Email – most of the time
91. WordPress
92. Gary
93. Rain
94. Sunshine
95. Bouganvilla
96. The ‘net
97. Good editors
98. Coaching clients
99. Mark Silver
100. Guy Williams
101. Jonathan Fields
102. Carol Tice
103. Jennifer Mattern
104. Deb Ng
105. The people taking my class on writing books
106. The people taking the marketing class
107. Linda
108. Chris

There, and more people and blogs are coming to mind.

What or who are you grateful for?

Love and blessings to each and everyone of you, and of course,

Write well and often,

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Image of mala beads:  Some rights reserved by Wonderlane