Take a moment …

to list three things you are grateful for right now!

Right now in this moment I am grateful for:

a good night’s sleep and waking up refreshed.

a day of sunshine and space to create.

the love and support I receive from friends and family and the universe.

Appreciation

While waiting for the shower to run from cold to hot, I think of three things I’m grateful for today:

I’m grateful for CoCo ( mini convertible borrowing from a dear friend) because it got me places I didn’t to get to today. All in one piece.

I’m grateful for the warm oat milk poured over Weetabix, with chilled blueberries and chocolate sauce. Comfort food.

I’m grateful for the chance to see my daughter today as I dropped off a book with her after school before she went on to her dad’s.

Feeling grateful today for …

The Healing Properties of the Seas ( again), Whitley Bay, Thursday 4 May 2023, 11.45am

the space to breathe. Breath in and breath out.

the energy to move my body in order to gain more energy.

my scarf, hat and gloves and coat.

the money in my pocket to buy a to coffee

the sea, the waves, the seagulls, the rocks; my kin

Spiral(Poetry for May)

To spiral is a magical course. One that we can journey on forever.

In the process of becoming whole.

Reconnecting with self, is a circling within. To listen.

Hear your inner wisdom, allow this voice to spiral outwards.

Show up in all your fucked up glory. Access how you are received.

Reflect on the experiences by spiralling back inside.

Turn each event and memory like amber up into the light.

See each crevice, each scar, each deep rooted lesson.

Regroup, patch up and offer yourself grace as you spiral back out into the world.

Rearmoured and ready to reconnect with the world on your own terms.

Spiralling in and out is the plan for change. Is a sign of love.

May (Blossom) Poetry – Empathising with Blossom

I see you, white blossom.

I feel your softness and gentle caress-petals.

Hanging, heavy bell-like clusters of white,

delicate to the touch as well as to the nose.

I taste your thirst for life, to cling on,

as your prime is short-lived, ephemeral

but no less spectacular. Thank you,

sweet one, for blazing white-bright

in my line of sight, that my heartswells

with awe and wonder and love. For you.

For this world. For we share this glory

through our true nature.

28 days of gratitude

I’ve been leaning into my gratitude practice, but sometimes I’ve forgotten and let the simple task of listing one thing per day for which I am grateful for, slide.

What can I say, habits are made to be broken as well as upheld. And the bad habits always seem to be the ones we hold onto. While those habits that can actually benefit us and bring some joy, peace and happiness into our lives, we fuck up!

Gratitude is one of them. Gratitude helps people feel more positive about their lives. It fosters positive emotions as people reflect and savour and relish good experiences and events and relationships.

Gratitude improves people’s health and makes them more satisfied with what they have rather than focusing time and energy and regret on what they do not have.

It’s been proven that being more grateful makes you happier.

Well I could always do with being happier. Everyone could. And that is not to say that I’m not grateful for the life I have, the life I’m living and the people in it. But I could do with a reminder and become more consistent in my appreciation and gratitude.

Hence the next 28 days of gratitude. Holding myself to account in order to re-engage with this positive habit and hold on to happiness.

I want to wring out as much gratitude for each experience and happening and being in my life as I can. As life is a gift but sometimes I forget. So today we begin again.

It’s day one of my gratitude practice.

Today I am grateful for the lie in I managed to have before being woke up.

But I’m not complaining as I was woke up by Miss Ella for a cuddle. I’m grateful for my morning cuddle in bed with my daughter.

I’m grateful today for the hot black fresh brewed coffee that helped me wake up fully and engage with the day.

I’m grateful to have completed a big application and submitted it today and it helped to have company while completing this work.

I’m grateful for the time I got to be alone and focus on the tasks I had to complete today and not be distracted or interrupted.

I’m grateful today for the chocolate I managed to stuff into my face after said application was complete and I could rest

I’m grateful to be able to lie in bed now, warm and sleepy and write this gratitude list without having to think too hard about what or who I am grateful for today because I have ample choices to draw upon to share.

PAD/022- You have a choice

You have a choice.

Like the dandelion

flowering within the edge

of a verge or between pavement slabs,

you have a choice.

Arousal. Finding joy

in life, is not something

someone else can give to you.

You must take it.

Like breathing.

Like the tulips coming

up for air, right here. Right now.

You have a choice.

An electric current swirling

always, through you.

Between you and the cherry blossom

bursting into pink glory.

To live from this bounty,

you have a choice.