Today is intended for gratitude.
I don’t want to go into the actual origins of the holiday. The intention of it is what matters.
Gratefulness.
We usually say we are grateful for the bounty of the year. We acknowledge abundance and plenitude.
But gratitude and happiness aren’t reserved for the big stuff only.
As we look back over the year, it shouldn’t be like a highlight reel of big plays, record-breaking moves, unprecedented events. The things we’re grateful for don’t have to be loud.
Today I want to be grateful for the stillness, for the small things that don’t make a big splash; for the soft spaces in my life.
And I don’t want to diminish their significance by prefacing with “at least.”
“At least” I’ve got my health.
“At least” I’ve got my job.
That minimizes the actual value and appreciation of what we’re grateful for, as though it’s a consolation prize.
I am grateful for breath.
I am grateful for friends.
I am grateful for love.
I am grateful for community.
I am grateful for the chance to practice all of the above.
Just B Yoga is grateful especially for every spirit who has shared practice with us, today and in days gone by. We’ve had to say goodbye to some very special friends this year who moved away: Christina, Leslie, Nkiru, Sean, Justin.
We have had to say goodbye to our neighbor Gay who passed away.
They all offered us opportunities to practice grace and kindness and compassion and forgiveness and joy.
We are grateful for silly moments, genuine smiles and authentic teachers.
A dear friend who attended a training at Just B Yoga two years ago sent us a note Tuesday that was a lovely reminder that we remain connected no matter the distance between us, and the depth of our interaction and appreciation for it can get richer over time.
Also, there was a guy there and I can’t remember his name. I think he was maybe a counselor at one time and maybe in to construction or something like that. I was really having my doubts about teaching Y12SR towards the end of the workshop. I was feeling as if it would be inauthenic of me to teach this when I myself had not walked the path of addiction. He came up to me at a break and told me that I didn’t have to have my own struggle with addiction to be authentic, that he could tell I had love and that was what made me authentic.
His words still come back to me today. If you remember who he was and have contact with him, could yu tell him that I have not forgotten those words. They still come back to me when I need them to chase the doubt away. Today I ate Thanksgiving lunch with my guys at the recover center where I have been holding Y12SR meetings since returning from that workshop, today I am grateful!” — Sheila Turner Bailleaux
Happy Thanksgiving.
B