Gratefulness

During the time I write this, it is Thanksgiving, a time of thankfulness. I don't think we stop enough to remember how blessed we are. We (assuming this email goes out to residents of the US) are so privileged, it is really amazing. We have access to clean water, food anytime anywhere, I cannot remember ever knowing someone who truly was hungry, ever! From a yogic standpoint, perhaps we are all souls who chose this time (20th century) and this place (good ole USA) to grow closer to God. How can we remember to do that when abundance is shoved down our throats? We can make small changes in our purchases, our choices, our words.
Thankfully, yoga opens us up enough to remind us we are all connected, every single action has a ripple effect upon the world, including our purchases, actions and words. So making efforts to be kinder, more patient and less greedy are HUGE efforts for Americans to practice, as our culture seems to be propagating the opposite. However, again thankfully, yoga reminds us that our True Nature is patience; kindness; compassion; non-possessiveness. And I think that adding a daily prayer/affirmation/chant of thankfulness is incredibly important as well. Not only is it humbling to remember this gift of life, health, abundance, but it also spreads out a ripple of gratefulness that I can only hope helps others to remember.
A friend of mine has cancer. It is pretty bad. Of course she and I are hoping for the best, yet also preparing for the worst. Her family is resistant to her non-Western experimental modalities, which makes her situation even more trying (like super fast growing, throat strangling cancer isn't bad enough!). So, not just once a day, but many many times a day, I think of her and her situation, and then I think of me and my healthy self and healthy family and out comes the gushing thankfulness in forms of prayers/tears/thoughts/actions.
It is truly a miracle to be alive, I think. We sure can forget this thought when we get out of yoga-mode and into judgment (like about our politics) or fear (like about our wars), but ultimately, we are spirit, embodied in this lifetime to remember God, and how blessed are we that our bodies are so magnificent, so miraculous, so beautiful!!!
Blessed are we,
love, stephanie