Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 96: The Sunday Night Re-fueling of Personal Reserves

Today, gratitude comes in the form of sleeping way in and not feeling one bit guilty.

Gratitude is responsibly connecting with a dear friend six feet away in a beautiful park for some much needed meaningful connection and realizing just how much I love and value friendship.

Gratitude is the hope that is beginning a new 1000 piece puzzle of Vincent van Goghs' Irises. My brain and my hands crave this colorful problem solving distraction.

Gratitude is baking perhaps the best batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies...I've ever made...I mean major yum.

Gratitude is another simple Sunday worship at my home with my little family. Nothing is sweeter or more meaningful.

Gratitude is packing a bag of snacks, shuffling our favorite playlist, and heading out for another lazy exploration of Antelope Island...our growing love affair with this tranquil place increases with each visit and I now understand with more clarity that my soul needs to connect to nature at least weekly.

Gratitude is witnessing my kid process this very grown up pandemic and stating on the regular "Mom, I think this coronavirus is butt kicking and I hate it and I want it to get out of our world!" And then sweetly and carefully praying for every single person we know to be blessed with a special forcefield so they will be brave and protected from these terrible germs. I am both inspired and a bit worried by her zeal to tell everyone we see they need to be wearing a mask, they cannot touch each other and they need to go straight home and wash their hands. It appears my little rule follower is listening and if not monitored closely will enact some kind of a four-year-old vigilante CDC health practice Marshall Law.

Gratitude is knowing that peace and stillness are both flooding and fleeting with each passing day, a paradoxical process that I think may take a lifetime for me to understand.

Grateful for what I'm both learning AND unlearning about myself, my job, my relationships, my family, my faith and our community throughout this process. This whole process is carving out newness inside of me in ways I could not have expected.

Grateful for my stellar team and work family...I've never been more inspired or more grateful.

On the eve of week number six of this determined effort to flatten the curve, I am banking big time on the positive and courageous contribution of our health care teams and front line workers. I pray earnestly for them and for all with decision making power and responsibilities that they may have clarity, ample sleep, wisdom, humility, and strong personal support systems. I'm counting every last blessings and doubling down on the transformative power of gratitude and meditation. This Sunday night re-fueling and mental re-calibration process has taken a new level of determination and holiness. It's a sacred sifting and sorting, a careful coordination and consecration of energy and creativity and emotions both processed and exchanged. New safeguards and systems have been implemented to identify what and who nurtures and nourishes and what does not. It's been clarifying and challenging and I can't think of a time requiring more sustained focus or effort. Endlessly grateful for all that this slowing down is teaching me. Big deep breaths. Big deep breaths. Big deep breaths in and out...in and out...in and out... for you and for me and for all of us...all week long...