More experiences of conscious language ...

I have a list with me, called 101 Things to Say to Praise and Encourage a Child. Some of these are :

- Way to go!
- Well done!
- Super star!
- Looking good!
- Nice work!
- Now you've got it!
- Good job!
- That's incredible!
- I like what you do!
- I'm impressed!
- You're clever!
- Atta girl!
- Atta boy!
- Spectacular!
- You'e very creative!
- You're a treasure!
- What an imagination!
- I trust you!
- That's correct!
- You did your best!
- I'm glad you're my kid!
- You made my day!
- You're awesome!
- I love you!


I'd like you to stop now, and think how your life might have been different if as a child, a significant person in your life had said some of these to you? If you, indeed, had been praised this way, how might that have changed who you are today, or what you do today? How might your life have turned out?

To use this as an exercise for yourself, read each praise, close your eyes, and 'hear' someone significant say it to you. One by one. Take your time with each praise - truly feeling it in your heart. Work of this nature often brings up intense emotion. If that should happen, allow the emotion ... if there are tears please, please just let them flow. Don't swallow them. Most people have a lifetime of swallowed tears that just keep choking us up, especialy at very inconvenient moments. It's time to release them. It's time to use the above to praise yourself!

A demain ... until tomorrow,

Kiki ;-)

I want to honor those of you

... who did yesterday's exercise - and are still standing, and better still, smiling :-)...

To honor and celebrate you, I chose the following two poems from 'I Heard God Laughing' - a book of poems by Hafiz (a fourteenth century Sufi poet), translated so ably and so delightfully by Daniel Ladinsky - and introduced to me by one of my very dear friends, another companion 'on the path', Cezanna Christine Malter (www.joyousliving.com).

These two are from the section 'You are with the Friend now' ('Friend' is Hafiz' allusion to God). In the poems in this section, Hafiz describes some of the preparations required for the Inner Journey of Love. He urges us to let go of habitual negative attitudes and unnecessary attachments, which only weigh us down. To make this journey, we must be light, happy and free to go Dancing! - so writes Daniel Ladinsky ... and I find these words so perfect, to honor your soul, dear reader, exhorting you to leave behind labels and names, others called you by, which you took over as your own, until you stopped seeing even your own Light:

My brilliant Image

One day the sun admitted

I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you,
The Infinite Incandescene

That has cast my brilliant image!

I wish I could show you
When you are lonely or in darkness,

The Astonishing Light

Of your own Being!'


**********

Manic Screaming

We should make all spiritual talk
Simple today.

God is trying to tell you something,
But you don't want to buy.

That is what your suffering is:

Your fantastic haggling,
Your manic screaming over the price!


**********

I hope you enjoyed these. And isn't it true that more often than not, in our lives, we get so snarled in the 'price' of things, that we completely lose touch with their 'value'.

This book is an inseperable part of me - and I just love to open it on a random page and enjoy the poem there! A great present to buy yourself, in this festive season :-) ...

Have a wonderful day,

Kiki ;-)

How are we doing? ... a little test to find out ...

OK - so how are we all doing? Let's find out right now :-) ...

Take a piece of paper. Yes, yes ... go ahead ... get up - don't be lazy. This part absolutely needs some paper and something to write with. Got it? Yes? Wonderful! Now starting on the left, write your name, followed by IS .... e.g. KIKI (Your name) IS ___________ ... and without stopping to think, as spontaneously as possible, add all the words that come to mind ...

Keep going till you have at least 10 adjectives (more is OK). There's a good chance some of these words show you in a positive light, and some don't. Now, take another piece of paper. On this, using the positive words, write sentences about yourself. E.g. Kiki is a good joke teller, etc. etc. Make a list of sentences that describe you as having good qualities.

Next - {{drumroll}} :-) - go to the bathroom and bring back the roll of toilet paper (or get a box of Kleenex). Carefully, since this paper is not meant for writing, using each of the 'not so nice' words, write out sentences about yourself on each square sheet, e.g. Kiki is a crybaby (I used to be called that by my family a lot when I was young :-)... ) etc. Once all the words have been used up in sentences, each on a different square of paper, go back to the bathroom with this pile, read each one again, and one by one flush them down the toilet.

So, what did we just do? Well, at a very core level, we took the first step to start reclaiming parts of ourselves. These adjectives that you wrote aren't really your opinions of yourself, but opinions of others that you bought into, a long, long time ago. Before deeper and more lasting work can be done, it's enough to take the first step to disidentify from the negative energy of these words and cut lose of them.

Go back now to the other list with the nice things you wrote about yourself -- add a few more sentences, if more positive descriptions of yourself come to mind ... really slow down while reading these - take in each one, smile, take a deep breath and allow your heart to open up. When you are done, put this piece of paper somewhere safe but handy, to look at at least a couple times a day.

How did that feel? Great, I'll bet - and on that note, 'A la prochaine' ...

Kiki ;-)

First, stop beating your own self up ...

Let's break this business of 'Conscious Language' into tinier bits, to bite, chew, and digest.

In the course of the day today I met several people, and it still amazes me to find how easily people will denigrate themselves, get mad at themselve, and call themselves names such as a fool, stupid, idiot, nutcase etc. Why people do it is for later, but for now, let's ask ourselves what we can do to stop ourselves, if we're induging in this self-flagellation. In the beginning, when I was new to this concept, and indulged indiscriminately in using UNconscious language, no sooner did I catch myself doing it, I would just put my index finger up, in space (on an imaginary 'mouse') and say 'delete, delete, delete' :-) ... to disconnect from self-beating. It was funny, made everyone around me laugh, and I felt I was finally doing something to break the bad habit. By contrast, when I did something smart I'd pat myself on my back, as if to say 'good girl'! ITry it and you'll see how empowering it is!

As always, please feel free to forward to anyone you know who'll benefit from these writings.

Kiki ;-)

Changing the words we use ...

As a young child in India, I used to often hear my mother tell my siblings and I, to say only good things. "Because," she used to say, "there's a magic moment in each day when anything you say, comes true - and you want to be sure to be saying good things all the time, because no one knew when the magic moment was." She would tell us that there was a story about a man who decided to create untold wealth for himself by using this principle of 'the magic moment', by repeating all day long a wish for manifesting great wealth. On a chosen day, he repeated all day long that may he become the richest man in town. The whole day passed and nothing happened. At the very end of the day, in disgust, he cried, "Satyanash!" - an Indian word uttered in disgust and anger, to mean 'Everything is destroyed' (OR 'May everything be destroyed') ... and of course, guess what? - everything that man already owned turned to dust, nevermind his dreams of future wealth!

I remembered this story a few months ago, after what must be decades. I was pondering the fact of 'conscious language' and from the deep recesses of my past it emerged. How simply the traditionalists used stories and fables to impress the Spiritual Laws upon us. This was but another way my mother tried to teach us the Law of Attraction, by de-intellectualizing it!

A 75-year old friend once told me, when I was spewing forth on this subject :-), that his Bible-reading grandma used to tell him that the scriptures said, "Thoughts are things"! So, if thoughts are things, why not just have the good ones! Ever catch yourself say 'with my kind of luck', 'bad things happen in threes', '(I'm) waiting for the other shoe to drop', 'I'm a good candidate for this (some horrendous) disease, because it runs in my family' ... Well, now that you know this, what're you gonna do? What will you choose to think, and believe, and say? It's your call now ...

Kiki ;-)

Quick now ... what's the song in your heart?

OK, quick now - what's the song in your head? It's almost certain that the song in your head is indicative of unconscious emotions you are experiencing. So, what are you supposecd to do now? Nothing much if it's a happy, upbeat, positive song -- but if it's a sad song, why not change it for a happy one! Why, you ask? Because our old friend 'the law of attraction' is continuing to do its number, and I'd rather attract into my day that which is happy, and upbeat, instead of the sad and negative.

As we all know, 'thoughts are things', so why let the sad, or negative songs, present in our heads as thoughts, manifest sadness or negativity into our lives. As we start becoming aware of the songs in our heads, and the thoughts in our minds, there's a good chance we will start changing the ones we don't want to see manifested in our lives. Some of us may feel very attached to sad songs - I used to be like that about some songs, and actually believed that I enjoyed wallowing in the emotions they stirred up - but as I learnt about 'conscious language' and 'conscious thought' I worked hard to replace those songs and thoughts, as soon as I became aware of them.

More on 'Conscious language' and 'conscious thought' tomorrow ...

So, watch those thoughts, remain grateful, and dream big :-)!

Kiki ;-)

A promise is a promise ... and 'dreams alive' ...

The 'promise' in the subject line is a promise to myself - to write this blog everyday, each day ... no relenting - no getting de-motivated. The previous blog was written very late last night and even as the prospect of doing two in one day loomed large I told myself, no matter, if I have to do a second one then that's what I'll do. I'm very pleased with myself for my determination, and for my word to me being 'IMPECCABLE'! (Did you read 'The Four Agreements' by Don Miguel Ruiz?)

Reverting to yesterday's suggestions, of steps to take to keep the 'writing dream' alive, the rationale behind the actions was to keep the self-sabotaging at bay, that's all. We often find that some of our long cherished dreams do come true, but others simply fade away. I happen to believe that the ones that faded away were viewed by us, at a deep level, as hard to achieve, because we already believed, ahead of time, at a deep level, that they would not/could not, come true. We set ourselves up for failure by being filled with self-doubt and not believing in our dreams, and still less that they would actually come true. This negative thought process is part of being human, and to control such thoughts is not easy. Therefore, taking small and big actions in the direction of the dream, keeps the mind diverted from sabotaging thoughts, and willy-nilly creates positive focus on what we'd like to see manifested. Where we end up in life is totally a result of the choices we made, each time there was a fork in the road. So, when the fork appeared, which road did you choose? The one that took you towards your dream, or the one that took you away from it? Never mind the compulsions. Which way did you fork?

I recently saw a quote associated with the recently deceased Swedish film-maker Ingmar Bergen: "I carry within me, my own demons and angels." That is true, not just for Mr. Bergman, but for all humanity. We all carry within our own demons, and it's these demons residing in our subconscious minds that all but control the directions our lives take, and shall take. I'm reminded of another quote - this one by Carl Jung: "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate." Are you surprised, at this definition of fate? So, guess what? Your fate is in your own hands, by the sounds of it! That can only be good news, n'est-ce pas? Isn't it? Get to know the demons and take the power back from them, to make the right choices, to have results of your own choosing.

Ok dokey - enough food for thought here ...

Kiki ;-)

Keeping ALIVE the dreams ...

The earlier blog brought an instant response from 'my new acquaintence'-- "Thanks!", she wrote, "It's inspiring. And here's a question: how does one go about letting go of the HOW in this case" ... and she went on to explain that she wants to work on her book, and is not quite able to keep that dream alive. She continues, "...writing fiction takes time and effort (just like any other dream). I'm all for the letting go of the struggle to get to my dream...but in the end I'm still going to have to write the thing. In writing, so much must come out of my brain. I'm afraid that if I let go of the how, I'll never write another word again!"

I wrote back: "Thanks to you that's what I'll write about tomorrow :-)! But here's a preview for you! The thing with some dreams is, somewhere along the way our subconscious mind picked up the message that this particular wish is going to be HARD to have - the underlying reasons for this may be 'I don't deserve ...', 'I'm not good enough', I'm not safe - I'll be laughed at'... these are just three of numerous self-sabotaging negative beliefs possibly at work, and that's why nothing seems to be happening."

"So, for now for you", I told her, "here are some steps to take (which I myself took - I never tell people to do what I don't/didn't do myself):

- start talking about it, your book, and your desire/dream of writing it .. at first tell people you feel safe talking about it to (safe in the sense of those you feel emotionally 'safe' with - who won't laugh at you)
- join a writers' group and attend their meetings
- 'SEE' (picture) yourself as a successful writer .. happy and excited that your first book is published
- picture yourself at your book launch, signing your book for crowds of people
- at some point when you start writing, get business cards printed, calling yourself a Writer/Freelance Writer etc.

All this will serve to send a message to your subconscious mind that you really want this to happen. Once your subconscious mind accepts the idea, events will start getting aligned, to bring you dreams to fruition."

Some more on this tomorrow,

Kiki ;-)

Having dreams ... and keeping them alive ...

Today's topic was triggered by a chance email I got from a new acquaintence, who said that keeping dreams alive was not easy. I wrote back to say thanks for the timeliness, in helping me prioritize my ideas for today's blog, and here we are!

It was in the early 70s, when hanging posters in your home was not yet passé. I used to often visit V.B., a cousin-in-law who had this poster up in her bedroom. It was a fairly huge one, a beautiful scene in nature and the words:

Happy are those who dream dreams ...
And can pay the price to make them come true.

I remember being deeply fascinated by the lines. It touched a very core place in me ... but sadly, the second line had an ominous ring to it. At that younger age, it fuelled my sense of adventure, but there must have been a quiet sharp in-breath, in feeling the fear brought on by the idea of 'paying the price'. Today, I know, there's no such thing as a price to pay. Because today I KNOW, that it's not mine to judge HOW my dreams will come true ... and if I should but stay aware of all the WOW moments of my life, the HOWs of the things I'm passionate about will get aligned - without my orchestrating them to. Need proof? Look back at your own life, and think about the things that you really wanted and which have manifested, even though you did nothing tangible to make them happen. I have many personal stories to tell - one that comes readily to mind is that from a very young age I wanted to live in the West ... and a deep desire to see my son educated in North America led to the alignment of a gazillion events that also resulted in my own dream to live in the West come true.

One of the ways to manifest your dreams is of course, the already mentioned expressing of gratitude for the things we already have. If I get into all the related information about keeping the dream alive, today's entry itself could turn into a whole book. So, let's chew this in small bits and if you haven't gone shopping for the Notebook yet, perhaps do so, to be ready for the next step ;-)! And what better day to start than on Thanksgiving - being celebrated today by our neighbours to the South (the Canadian Thanksgiving was on Oct. 8).

It doesn't matter where you are in the world - every day can be Thanksgiving ... and in fact the more frequently you celebrate this day ;-) the more you can have of what you want :-) ...

I've already had my miracle manifestation today. More and more, I have been wanting to work from home - and have always remembered to give thanks on days I have. Today is a very challenging day in Montreal, weather-wise: snow, rain, and freezing rain icing up the streets - and I have two clients coming home for their courses, instead of me travelling to the University. Thank YOU, God!

Kiki ;-)

Wisdom from Maya Angelou

After the epistles of the last four days, I thought today's writing would be short and sweet. And so, here's a lovely quote from the venerable Maya Angelou:

"I have learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." A wonderful quote for sure, but I'd like to add, that since 'charity begins at home', start by treating yourself well, and making yourself feel good, and as your cup overflows it'll fall on those around you :-)! Because what we do not have, we are incapable of giving.

Before logging off, my heartfelt thanks to those of you who wrote in with their comments. What I loved is that people are happy to have a reminder of things they already know. These ideas, specially on the theme of gratitude were obviously not invented by me - at an innate level we all know these principles, but for one reason or another we choose to forget them.

Ok - where's that gratitude journal :-)?

Kiki ;-)

Pollyanna ... 'The Glad Girl'

Some four or five years ago my writers' group had invited Marilyn Vanderhaeghe, a Montreal writer, to one of our monthly meetings, to speak about her writing experiences. She also did some reporting and journalistic writings, and as she went on we realized that she wrote only about the good things that happened in the community. This was a revelation, and one member actually got up to ask her about it. Her already charming personality got more appealing for me as she unabashedly confessed to being a 'Pollyanna of news-reporting'. She said no matter what, she didn't write about any bad things that happened around her or in the community - but only the positive, and the uplifting. The reason I was so impressed with her was that as she was talking, my mind was shouting within, 'But, that's me! That's me! That's what I am - a Pollyanna! It's what I've always been, and this is what I'd like to do - be a spokesperson for all that's good, beautiful, and wonderful in the world, in life.' Marilyn's words were not new or a surprise for me, because I had heard them in my own head for years and years - but what listening to her did for me was to validate for me my own voice, to express such ideas, and hold my own before cynics, sceptics, pessimists, and others with a 'dark' view of life, and the world.

To each his own! Being a Pollyanna works just fine for me - in fact it fits me to a T - and I love 'doing' Pollyanna :-)! I remember, years ago, in India, when the morning newspaper was delivered with morbid pictures of death and destruction on the front page, I used to dream of starting a daily that I'd have liked to call The Good News Tribune, with happy pictures on the front page, so that people would start their day on a cheerful, uplifting note. Marilyn Vanderhaeghe, therefore, felt a soul-sister of sorts!

For those who could use some information about Pollyanna, and who she was, here's some information - the source is Wikipedia:

Pollyanna is a best-selling 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that is now considered a classic of children's literature - and eleven more Pollyanna sequels, known as "Glad Books", were later published, most of them written by Elizabeth Borton or Harriet Lummis Smith.

Pollyanna has been adapted for film several times. [edit] Plot introduction
The title character is Pollyanna Whittier, a young orphan who goes to live in a small New England town with her wealthy but dour Aunt Polly. Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic attitude she learned from her father. It originated in a disappointing mishap: Pollyanna's father mail-ordered a doll for his daughter's Christmas present, but what showed up was two crutches. Making the game up on the spot, he taught Pollyanna look at the good side of things— to be "Glad for we don't need to use these".

Consequently, Pollyanna always tries to find something to be glad about in every situation, and to always do without delay whatever she thinks is right. With this philosophy, and her own sunny personality, she becomes known as "The Glad Girl", and brings so much gladness to her aunt's dispirited New England town that she transforms it into a pleasant, healthy place to live.

Inscription on Pollyanna's brooch, a gift from her father, says: "When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will." — Abraham Lincoln. The novel's success brought the term "pollyanna" into the language to describe someone who is cheerfully optimistic and who always maintains a generous attitude toward the motives of other people. At the height of her popularity, Pollyanna was known as "The Glad Girl".

I'll sign off with 'If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.' :-)!

Kiki ;-) - the glad girl!

P.S. If there's someone you believe could use this, please forward it to them. If you receive this as a forward, please book mark to have it handy.

RULES? What Rules??

Ever since posting yesterday's piece, a part of me has been engrossed in analyzing my choice of the word 'rules', as in 'rules pertaining to the Gratitude Journal'. Here's a sample of my circular thoughts: 'Rules? Who am I to lay down rules?' 'Rules? How distasteful!' 'What rules? This is supposed to be fun, and simple to do - spontaneous ...' I decided then, that the choice of the word was inappropriate, because what I really was going to be writing about was akin to responses to a set of FAQs. And that's what it's going to be - phew!

I'm not going to list all the questions that I've been asked over the years, but simply the responses I've given to people. If anyone has a question that's not been answered, please do feel free to write/comment and I will address it. Fair?

Responses to FAQs:

- First focus on THAT day's positive events and write them down. If there's stuff from other days you want to express gratitude for, by all means do so, but these would be #6 and on.

- To anyone who says they can't think of anything to be thankful for 'in this sucky life of theirs', I say: 'Really now - the fact that you have this Gratitude Journal poised on you lap means that at some level you believed you'd have something to write - yes?' Some reminders for things to be grateful for: you're breathing; you're alive; chances are you have some loving family members, especially if they said or did something nice for you; someone outside the family said or did something nice; a good chance you had a fairly decent dinner, before sitting in bed with your Journal; at work your boss came in later than you did; parking was easy; you didn't miss your bus; nature - flowers, trees, sun, rain, sky; there's something or someone to celebrate; you received an email that gave your heart such a lift you decided to forward it to all your friends ;-); a last minute cancellation of a meeting that freed up your time; even as you feel compassion for, and do what you can for people in dangerous/disaster stricken areas of the world, you and your loved ones are safe. Bet you can find hundreds more to add ...

- On a REALLY BAD day, you can write one or two things and repeat them till you have five. The idea here is to stay in positive anticipation.

- In this list you can be sarcastic :-)! You can say stuff like, how grateful you are that the day is over :-)! Don't worry - it's perfectly OK ... helps to externalize the negative feelings ... then take a deep breath, exhale and think again. Now perhaps, the list will exceed 5.

- On this list you can be mad/angry, with the Higher Intelligence. Surprised? Well, what I've learnt is that being angry with people causes too much damage on each side, and at many levels - physical, mental, emotional, and finally spiritual. Better instead to 'speak strongly' to God :-), and tell Him/Her that you didn't approve of something that happened to you :-), and while you were willing to concede that a few 'little' things did go OK, you expect a better deal the next day. I personally have had quite a lot of fun with this :-)!

Ok folks, that's it for today! Number 1 on my list tonight is going to be my 9:45 a.m. call from San Francisco from my younger grandson: "Nanu, nanu (my grandsons' cute distortion of Nani)", he went, "I made a house for the fairies in the garden last night. They were so grateful, they left me a crystal in the bathtub I made for them." My daughter came on the phone to say that when he discovered the crystal this morning (left by the grateful fairy, equivalent of the tooth-fairy - big 'WINK') he was besides himself with happiness and excitement - and after sharing his news with his parents and older brother he asked to phone me and tell me his story!

Feel free to share this blog with anyone you believe might benefit from it. Thank you.

Have a great whatever time of day it is, wherever you are,

Kiki ;-)

As promised yesterday, the 5-minute tip ...

First off, thank you all, who sent their comments and congratulations - all accepted with a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart :-)! I'm aware that posting your comments requires you to have a gmail add and that's a problem for some, who wrote at my regular hotmail add. I'm not a techie, and learning on the job :-) - will see if I can find a way around it.

THE 5-MINUTE TIP

Ok, here goes - get hold of a notebook, of any sort, but a nicely bound notebook with a nice cover will add specialness to the exercise. The one I'm presently using (I've gone through a few in the past few years) has a thick burgundy cover with a lattice-work of small golden leaves printed all over it. Very beautiful! I call it my Gratitude Journal! So could you. Ok, here's the deal:

EVERY night at bedtime, better if you're already in bed, ready to sleep, write down in your notebook 5 events that happened that day, that you're grateful for. Remember, the key is, which events brought you relief, or comfort, or joy, a song to your lips, made you whistle a tune, took your breath away? Any, and all of these merit a place in your Gratitude Journal. I just begin by writing: Thank you God ... OR Thank you my Higher Self ... and itemize 5 things that happened that very day. You may write more, but not less. I've had days when my list runs to 10 or more items - oh, happy day!

Well, there you go! And, this is what is happening:

Being in a state of gratitude you are experiencing 'positive emotions' - which the ever-present Universal Law of Attraction will bring you more of ... by bringing into your life more of the same.

This is one of my all-time favorite topics :-)! I dream sometimes of men, women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan writing Gratitude Journals - as well children living in poverty everywhere in the world. Some might say this is idealistic, but hey - better to be an idealist than a harbinger of negativity and fear! There's too many of those around already. I truly believe the world needs more happy dreams - and cheers to that (with 'coffee' at this early hour, in Montreal)!

A parting quote: 'Don't count your years by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away'!

And tomorrow - some more rules pertaining to the gratitude list, but don't wait and waste today - get crackin' already, if motivated ...

Have a wonderful day,

Kiki ;-)

Comment: Thanks a lot, Fran and Kitty for your encouragement :-)!

If you had time to do ONLY ONE meaningful action every day ...

A warm welcome to the readers of this blog - which has been a long time coming :-)! This is my first entry, marking today as the first day of the rest of my life - haha! - how philosophical is that! It is my hope and wish, that each day you will take something meaningful away from here, which will make your day, or your life, brighter, easier, and perhaps more meaningful. I look forward to being on this journey - first and foremost with myself :-), and equally important, with whoever wants to share it with me. To you, here's another warm welcome :-)!

Today's thought:

When I look back at my life, and try to determine the single most important action I took to change my life - to move from being and staying a 'victim', attracting huge amounts of negative experiences despite being a good person, I have no doubts that my life started to change when I learnt to become consciously 'grateful' for the 'good' things in my life. The 'good' here refers to what brought comfort to me, a smile to my lips, a happy lifting of the heart, a sense of joy in my whole being.

So, how does this work, I'm asked again, and again. The answer is: Through expressing gratitude for what works in our lives. Because being grateful is another form of acknowledging the 'positive' experiences we have, and we attract to ourselves that which we think more about. E.g. we humans tend to pay more attention to that which doesn't work in our lives, and less to the moments that DO work - moments of happiness, joyous abandonment to laughter, moments that make our hearts sing. Most of us do say, 'Oh, thank God', when we are surprised by an unexpected good turn of events, but it's done in a way that is still connected with fear - a fear of what might have happened if this piece of good fortune hadn't come our way. I used to be like this, till I learnt to change it to, 'Thank YOU, God' - or, if you so wish, replace 'God' with whatever Higher Intelligence you believe in.

Funny, how we are so well raised as to say 'Thank you' when someone says 'Bless you' to us even when we sneeze, but how we take all the small and big wondrous events of our life for granted, and let them go by without expressing gratitude for them.

Tomorrow: The easiest expression of gratitude - a 5-minute tip ... and one that attracts more of things to be grateful for :-) ...

Until then,

Kiki ;-)

Comment: Thanks a lot Libby (solutionsfromwithin.ca), for your wonderful and spontaneous reaction to this, my new venture :-)!