All posts by CarolBailey Floyd

Thank You for My Teams!

I realized today, as my dentist was lovingly adjusting my new front tooth, that I have many teams that help keep me up and running!

1.  My family team – always loving me, having fun with me, around for all the holidays, steady in adversity, the best team ever!

2.  My friendship team – wow and wowee! what a magnificent group of all different kinds of people!  Fun, serious, silly, loving, some are even very carefully chosen family,  And then there’s the pals and the “Island Girls” . . .

3.  The church team – what would I do in this life without my amazing church family at Unity Chapel of Light?  The first time I attended, I knew I had found my spiritual home!  Hooray!  The people at Unity mean the world to me.

4.  The plumbing team – bless the plumbers who do maintenance around our house and sometimes rescue us during emergencies!

5.  The electrician’s team – what would we do without light?  Thank you to all the electricians, who have helped keep us in the light over the years, and safe, too!

6.  The yard team — it is such a relief to know that a wonderful group descends on our yard during the Spring, Summer, and Fall, to keep it well groomed, while I get to do the fun gardening and flowers part!

7.  The postal team — through rain, snow, and sleet they come with our packages and mail!  Our regular mail carrier is cheerful and fun, and we are grateful for his substitutes, too!

8.  The retail team – what would be be without the places we go to get the things we need like food, clothes, office supplies (I would be bereft without office supplies!), home maintenance needs, etc.?

9.  Our online team — that includes Belle, our webmistress!  my gmail account!   my ability to do keyword searches!  and everything else!  and all the wonderful blogs and websites that help keep me up and running.  Yippee!

10.  The automotive team — thank heavens there are people who know about the mechanics of car engines!  I would have to buy a new car every six months if I were in charge of repairing my own car.  And when you find an honest and reasonable mechanic — hallejuah!

11.  The dental team — thank you for the teeth that you have kept presentable and operational.  To all the dental assistants, hygienists, dentists, oral surgeons — deep gratitude for your care.

12.  The health team — for all the years, since birth, of tests, operations, check-ups, eye-exams, conversations, prescriptions, encouragement — where would I be without all of you?  (don’t answer that!  lol)

I have just mentioned a few of the teams that keep me up and running.  Just thinking of that is amazing to me.  I bet you have lots of teams, too!

 

Thank You!

1.  for Amanda the bright red amaryllis — wow!

2.  my wonderful banana

3.  this computer

4.  my sock monkey checks that make everyone laugh

5.  the flowers that celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary — hooray!

6.  the morning newspaper

7.  today’s basketball games — both grandsons playing — yippee!

8.  a sunny, blue sky day

9.  for a wonderful car to get me where I want to go — thanks, Molly!

10.  for this life of every day’s chances, choices, and opportunities!

Thankful Every Day!

1.  This is our week!  Hooray!

2.  Lots of people are talking about gratitude.

3.  My life changed dramatically when I took gratitude out of Thanksgiving week and invited it into my everyday life.

4.  Thank you to “Good List Daily” and and “We Love Gratitude” for giving me a place to express my gratefulness.

5.  Thank you to Simple Abundance by Sara Ban Breathnach for introducing me to the idea of a gratitude list many years ago — listing five things I’m grateful for at the end of each day.

6.  It is such a sheer pleasure to meet someone who shares a grateful approach to living!

7.  I just met Mayra from this website over the weekend — yippee!

8.  Even on days when really upsetting things are happening, there are also many things for which I can be grateful, and they outweigh the worst of circumstances.

9.  Gratitude is so powerful, it can turn lives around in miraculous ways.

10.  Happy Thanksgiving week to all of us thanks givers!  Yahoo!

Thank you, Belle, for our wonderful website!  And thanks to everyone who posts and/or reads!

 

Gratitude for Resilience!

1.  Resilience has been something I have always wanted to attain.

2.  When times are challenging, I do my very best to bring out all my resilient energies.

3.  Last weekend, we took out every book, art supply, desk, Zentangle artwork, and piece of furniture from my beloved art studio and office apartment.

4.  With the loving help of friends and family, this amazing move was accomplished.

5.  Utmost gratitude to Rose, Dyan, Kevin, Barry, Tom, Maribeth, Mary Ellen, and all the others who helped with this transition.

6.  My dear friend Holly, who is an Interfaith Minister, helped me clean the apartment and scatter blessings throughout it for the next tenant so they can have fun and happiness in that wonderful spot.

7.  I have a million boxes to unpack, and I am pretending they are presents!  I am still sorting for donations — yesterday afternoon, I unpacked 6 boxes and am donating 1 out of those.

8.  It feels good to divest myself of things that others can use better than I can.

9.  This transition feels like an integration, and it feels good, right, and smart.

10.  And guess what?  I am a resilient person!  That is not a characteristic I have to long for any more — hooray!  yahoo!  yippee!

Gratitude for Gratitude!

1.  I have been feeling so blessed lately, a really great feeling.

2.  It started, again, with imagining myself on the desert, lost, with nothing, very thirsty, and scared.

3.  Then I got rescued, and got water, and food, and got to be with my family and friends again.

4.  I got all my clothes back, my house, car, books, artwork, and all my adventures!

5.  Ever since I thought of that, I have been very aware of how lucky I am to have running water, a car to drive, a bed to sleep in, and everything else.

6.  I am also moving my art studio and office back home this week!  It’s been an amazing process, with ramifications I never would have predicted.

7.  One thing I have done, since this is such a huge change, I have been doing lots of  little changes so I can feel more in charge of the change process.

8.  Hagen Daaz ice bar for lunch, a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in 8 oz. of warm water twice a day (amazing for arthritis), getting tickets for a favorite folk singer, signing up for reflexology, etc.

9.  And I have give away close to 100 boxes and furniture to my church rummage sale, Goodwill, Salvation Army, and to my neighbors and friends.  It feels great to set these things free!

10.  This change, which I thought would be heartwrenching, is turning out to be amazing.  And I truly believe that living in gratitude has a lot to do with being able to notice all the goodness, synchronicity, and even the miracles.  Yippee yo yo YO!

Gratitude for Family Dinner!

1.  Thinking about what to have for a couple of days in advance!

2.  Inviting the Floyd Jrs. (We are Floyd Srs.)

3.  Grandpa Sherman is always invited on Sunday night.

4.  Looking forward to the Sunday camaraderie of family together.

5.  Getting the food together — Maribeth, Tom, and I all pitching in.

6.  Even though the Floyd Jrs. (including the grandsons) couldn’t come at the last minute,

7.  Kevin, our son, came over and we gave him half the dinner for him to take home, and had a little visit

8.  Ham, creamy mushroom rice, broccoli, noodles, pumpkin dessert — oh my!

9.  Grandpa Sherman said it was all chummy sitting around the table after dinner

10.  Oh how blessed we are to have family to love and share food with — to be in the same town with, and enjoy each other’s company!

Gratitude for Some of My Favorite Books!

1.  The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – I consider this to be one of the most amazing books ever written.  It’s about accessing your creative energies, which is manifested in everything we do — not just art aRt ART!

2.  Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser – Written with deep wisdom in a friendly way about getting through difficult times, and how change can shape us.

3.  Anything by SARK – fun, whimsical, yet powerful approaches to living.

4.  Eva Luna by Isabel Allende – (fiction) – magical realism, the story swept me away into an unfamiliar, yet mesmerizing world.

5.  Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – one of the best books on writing ever.

6.  Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss – encouragement and enthusiasm for any age.  Here’s John Lithgow reading it – click on the book title.

7.  WRAP Plus by Mary Ellen Copeland – This is the expanded version of the Wellness Recovery Action Plan, which is a wonderful way to coordinate daily living for balance and well-being — see WRAPandrecoverybooks.com for more information.

8.  Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha – what could be more awesome than a whole book of awesome things?

9.  Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman – a delightfully written exploration of our incredible senses, a book to savor.

10.  Simple Abundance by Sara Ban Breathnach – home of the gratitude journal and other daily inspirations.  A classic.

Thank you to Garrett, who taught me how to make links, so you can click on each book’s title and find out more!  Hooray!

 

Gratitude for Chosen TV!

1.  CBS Sunday Morning News

2.  Dancing with the Stars

3.  Project Runway

4.  Tavis Smiley

5.  American Idol

6.  Modern Family

7.  Work of Art:  The Next Great Artist

8.  The X Factor

9.  Our America with Lisa Ling

10.  Curb Your Enthusiasm

11.  Inside the Actor’s Studio

Hooray for DVR that allows me to watch my favorites when I am in the mood.  And I remember when Belle said, “Have you noticed that hardly anyone mentions TV on these lists?”  This one’s for you, Belle — I’m coming out of the closet!  lol