Dear Universe....

Thanks for killing my car.
I have woken up with the sun, walked around my neighborhood, actually had time to read my library book and forced to find the best bus route downtown.

Thanks for finding me a house.
It's nice to have space!: a kitchen big enough for more than two people...a table just for art projects...freedom to paint the walls any color, building our very own garden boxes and planting a real herb garden with my favorite herbs for cooking and wellness.

Thanks for giving me a great husband.
Eric is helpful: he makes sure the plants don't die, keeps the baby plants alive, keeps the dishes clean, makes cookies, tapes the ceiling to paint the walls, pays the bills plus many other random helpful things that I don't even know about half the time because he gets home 2 hours before I do.
And he makes me laugh:) And keeps me sane.

Thanks for the invention of jetted tubs.
Our new house has a bathtub that's actually big enough for 2 people- it's like a hot tub.  And is amazingly luxurious for one person, especially after a long day of work followed by strenuous exercise (jumping on boxes, lifting weights, doing pull ups...). Did I say amazing?

Thank you Universe for the simple pleasures that keep life doable and wonderful.

http://mywisdomquest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/TheUniverse.jpg

gratitude.

I am grateful
for a lot!
but sometimes I forget
to take a minute
and really acknowledge
ALL of the moments
and things
and people
that I appreciate
and experience
in my life
every day.
So, here goes...I'm starting a gratitude journal.
It was Eric's idea...
I tend to get caught up in what my next goal is
and what I'm going to do in the future...
whether at work or in my personal life
I often don't take the time to stop
 and look
at all the things I have accomplished
Or all the things to be grateful for
or proud of
Or happy about...
So...this week I am particularly grateful for

Yoga: hip stretches!!  so nice.
grow your internal garden, breathe, stretch, feel, move
with the rhythm of body
and breath
and spirit
trust the universe.

Good friends:
I'm glad for my friends.
Special thanks to Mabel and Jensu for your inspiration
and friendship recently.
Love you.

My job- good, inspiring work with good people and good benefits and good health insurance with opportunities to be challenged and grow...

savor the moments.
sitting in a hot bath with sugar scrub on my skin, being handed a cookie dough beater to lick while listening to daisy may after getting home from good workout with good people to a warm house with a newly repaired furnace that's been broken for weeks...it really is the simple things in life that make it all worth it.
or bearable.  or just beautiful...
in that single moment, I felt content.  loved.  confident.  grateful.  present.
i could see the future and the past all at once and time stopped. i could see the possibilities and opportunities that lie ahead and i saw happiness and acceptance and contentment.  instead of feeling fear or doubt or anxiety about the past or the future of things that might be or have been, for that one moment, I was in the present. i felt like I could do anything and be happy... 
the magic of that moment has past, but I still feel it lingering in the room, tingling my skin & teasing my senses.
How do I make it stay?