it could be worse

“The artist’s language is a sensual one, a language of felt experience. When we work at our art, we dip into the well of our experience…”
Julia Cameron

10 More Things to Be Grateful For During the 2020 Pandemic

“Even when we are feeling ravaged, we can dance if we choose to.”

Family. I mentioned my love for my parents yesterday but I have more family than that whom I am grateful for. I have my three beautiful children that give my life meaning, two of which have beautiful partners. Those couples are creating littles due in April and July. My partner who knows me, who tries to support me, who shares what he is with me. I have a sister and a brother and their beautiful families that extend past nieces and nephews. For these people I can truly say that my love is unconditional. When the shit rises to the top, love is still there.
Tribe. My chosen family. The friends I’ve had forever. The creatives. My mentors. Love them all.
Animals. Especially dogs. I love them and they love me. They have a direct connection to the human spirit and they know the importance of stillness.
Books. I love the way I can chose a book I’ve already read, open it randomly and within skimming of a few pages find a line that connects to my now poignantly. Books are my tarot cards.
Freshly Washed Sheets. I love slipping into the cool freshness of clean linens. Give me high thread count cotton on a quality mattress and I feel like heaven decided to meet me on earth. Seriously. I even moan a little at the intense pleasure of it, every time.
Time Travel. I’ve been doing this for years. I travel back through memory and forward through dreams. Sometimes the recollections and projections belong to me, often, they don’t.
Synchronicities. Those good things that feel like the stars have aligned happen all of the time. Opportunities. Noticing them is paramount. Knowing my desires is key, as is mindset, but asking for what I want and acting like it’s happened, that’s been paramount. The universe has our backs. Without time for stillness, a person can’t get clear on what they want.
Warm Water. Handwashing is ‘in’ right now. I’m doing it often. Imagine how uncomfortable and chapped we’d feel if we only had cold tap water. I feel very fortunate and grateful to have warm running water to accompany my locally made scented soaps.
Birdsong. It’s not quite spring here yet, I know this because the frogs out back are still quiet. However, this morning I woke up to the robins and another song I didn’t recognize. It’s the best way to wake up in my opinion. Music is soul food.
Fried Chicken. I don’t crave food like this. I don’t particularly like deep fried anything. I’ve added it to the list because I know how it tastes and I’m grateful for that. Funny, I’m time travelling right now, back to Lloret de Mar, Spain, 1979. The best chicken, rotisserie, I ever tasted. I am so grateful for my varied experiences. Life is meant to be lived before and after the periods of necessary stillness.

“Gratitude is always the right mindset.”

10 Things to Be Grateful For During the 2020 Pandemic

The sun continues to stream through windows and illuminate tiny dust particles in the air as though they were each choreographed ballerinas.
I still have limbs to swoosh those particles.
I can still dance to Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby while self-isolating in my home. (Or anything else I want to thanks to a shared Apple Music account. And…it doesn’t skip when I dance too close to the device!)
We live in a world of abundance. I have food, water, wine and a little bit of good chocolate in the cupboard. I have kale growing in the garden and I know which weeds and wild plants are tasty and nutrient rich when the begin popping up in the next little while. Some people even say sungazing fills them.
I know how to sit quietly and day-dream or meditate, or imagine, or notice. From stillness creativity sprouts and strains. I feel lucky to have time for stillness.
Each day is a gift. I don’t usually plan them when things are quiet but I could. Choice still exists.
I have noticed that creatives are making beautiful offerings available online for everyone. There are free courses, free concerts, free comedy, and who needs to laugh right now? You and me, baby. I am grateful I have the ability to watch them. I say thank-you at the end because I’m a good Canadian who was raised right, eh. I love my parents.
Speaking of parents, mine are over 80. I know how lucky I am to have had both of them in my life for all of these years. I’m calling and texting the people I love often right now. I have time to do that. It’s nice to be in closer touch again.
Coffee. I can not overstate how grateful I am for my morning cuppa. I can make a really great cup of coffee in my home and that routine, so dear to me, does not need to change. I just have more time to enjoy it every day. No errands to run. Appointments are cancelled. All those pressing things that I feel I must do, even taxes, are on hold. That’s a pretty great upside. One that might stick to my ribs a bit.
Our Canadian Prime Minister, despite what some might say, is a compassionate human being. Money is being released to help people get through this. Billions. I’m not sure where those billions were before this; its a bit like the magical and mysterious journey of salmon, but they are here now, those billions, and they will be needed by 99% of the population. I’m pretty sure the other 1% are on some tropical deserted island they own sipping pink umbrellaed drinks tsk tsking, but that’s normal. I’m so very, very grateful that our Prime Minister is not named Trump .

“By opening to the world as it is, we may discover that gentleness, decency, and bravery are available to us and to all human beings.”
Margaret J Wheatley