1. Attending a poetry slam in Cleve, what an interesting night!
2. The poets were so passionate, you could feel the emotion crackling in the room
3. A friend’s graciousness today
4. Finally framing a picture I’ve had for years- and my husband took thw time to hang it right after it came home!
5. More work than I can shake a stick at
6. Finally accepting something I’ve been resisting
7. Friends who work through it with you
8. The way gratitude dissolves dualistic thinking
9. Practicing a more raw, deep gratitude
10. Loving what is

1. Doctor, medical personnel who performed surgery to reconstruct my daughter’s acl
2. Meeting an old friend in the waiting room
3. Call from sil who is in the middle east, keeping him updated during the 3 hr. surgery
4. Recovery room..monitors for b/p, oxygen, etc.
5. Crutches, leg brace
6. Being more aware of handicap accommodations
7. Physical therapy..going the next day! and then 3 times a week
8. Brian, the p.t., the best, a great guy!
9. Daughter’s diligence in exercises..stationary bike at p.t. and recumbant bike at home
10. She is now a “one crutcher” and progressing very well…might be able to drive in another week or so.

1. God

2. An extraordinary week at my new college, the Inauguration of the President, like nothing I’ve ever seen.  I knew he was that good but this was something different.  In thanking his family he became emotional.  Then he spoke of an experience of prayer with which I can identify, I know these experiences are real.  Then he was on fire, telling the students how he believes in them and what they can accomplish.  May it be broadcast.

3. Transporting a visitor in a wheelchair

4. Striking up a conversation with someone I hadn’t met and getting aware of her situation and thinking of how I might be useful

5. Elm Park at dusk

6. Julie knows about life and beauty and ephemerality

7. Discovering stories from Mayra here and here with which I identify

8. Susan writing about  an open heart I need this today and always

9. A breakthrough poem by Jessica Kristie

10. The title comes from Baseball When the Grass Was Real, Earl Averill, the Indians centerfielder was talking to Charlie Gehringer, the Tigers’s second baseman: “Wait till you see this kid we’ve got.  He’ll remind you you’re in the big leagues.” (He was speaking of the 17-year old wundekind Bob Feller.) “I heard about him,” Gehringer said,” he must be pretty good, huh.”  ” No,” said Averill, “he’s better than that. In fact, he’s even better than that.”

1. Fall hikes
2. Vibrams
3. Juicing green veggies
4. Modeling clay
5. Projects that make messes
6. People. People are awesome.
7. The crisp coat-and-sweater weather
8. Creating systems that work
9. Writing them down
10. “I must Create a System or be enslav’d by another Man’s” -William Blake

1. God

2. Help focusing

3. Fresh start

4. Meeting new people

5. Opportunities to be of service

6. Kind words from Rachael

7.Networked information

8. Cool breezes

9. Hibiscus

10. Acceptance

1. for birth

2. for death

3. for joy

4. for grief

5. for victories

6. for defeats

7. for confusion

8. for clarity

9. for fear

10. for love

1. Laughing

2. Waiting for my husband to come home for a four day weekend!

3. Heading to Akron for the Youth Triathlon on Saturday

4. The human body

5. Being understood

6. Learning

7. My boy and dog running and playing at the park…so much fun to watch <3

8. Change

9. Writing things down

10. Fixing what's broken

1. Writing thank you notes
2. Having too many activities to do
3. The library
4. My husband’s comment today, which made me laugh so hard I cried. “When you get hungry snakes start coming out of your head. You go from Little Bo Peep to Medusa in no time flat.”
5. New band recommendations from my little sis
6. Goal vision boards at Unrealistic Goals Group tonight
7. Meeting new people
8. Karen’s incredible style and flair with everything she does
9. Hearing the history behind re-used items
10. “Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible.” -Cherie Carter-Scott

Very grateful for

1. Pausing long enough to see the cute way Ruby pauses and sniffs the air
2. Joyce showing up for extra volunteer time
3. A friend has begun writing again
4. Cecelia’s steeled strength
5. The gentle shake last Sunday was an actual earthquake-in Texas- and not some weird mid-life vertigo
6. A Reassurance
7. Reassurances
8. Sissy
9. God’s forgiveness
   Beauty, it can be a strange flower, unfurling in the hard seasons — most fragrant in the wind. ~ Ann Voskamp

1. getting unexpected flowers from the altar on Sunday from my friend Kathy!

2. being at Unity on 9/11 was the right way to start my day

3. watching TV over the weekend — stories of bravery, compassion, grief, and love

4.  knowing that humans reach out to each other all the time, in big ways, and little ways

5.  courage and kindness are happening all the time

6.  it’s amazing how our lives can change in the course of a second, minute, or hour

7.  watching the Jacqueline Kennedy special last night, with her recorded observations of Camelot

8.  Camelot was the time of my youth, optimism in politics, and hope for the future

9.  I felt that again when I campaigned for Obama

10.  Hope seems to come and go, but in reality — it is always there!  It is up to us to cultivate it in every way we can.