Are you feeling grateful?

Yesterday I took a trip to the tower.

Have you ever been there?

Tower is code for freak out, melt down, panic attack.

What I realize now is that my grief over the loss of my precious dog morphed from tears, to melancholy to irriation to every single fricking thing is wrong in my life.

That, my friends is the tower.

It's not pretty there.

I don't recommend visiting there very often but thanks to my friend Lisa who was having a normal and rational sorta day because she was able to gently talk me down from the edge one kind and loving word at a time. She has done this for me on more than one occasion. I have done the same for her.

It's how we roll and thank God and all that is holy we have never been in the tower at the same time.

After hanging up the phone and maybe not feeling  alot better but at least becoming aware that I was taking a trip to crazy town made it possible for me to proceed with the evening.

I made dinner, ate dinner, watched a little TV, brushed my teeth, helped Lilly brush her teeth and read several stories to her and then picked up a book of my own and read my way back to the love and gratitude I had been seeking earlier in the day.

Thank you Rhonda Byrne. I am so grateful for you.

A few months ago I purchased the book The Power.

This is Rhonda's second book after her groundbreaking book and movie "The Secret".

I read about half the book and for some reason I set it down and didn't pick it up again.

Until last night.....

and I read page after page about love and gratitude. I read that Albert Einstein thanked 100 people everyday as he went about his work. I read the story of a man who turned his whole life around after focusing on gratitude for just 120 days. His job, his finances, his love life....everything was transformed through his decision to focus on what he already had to be grateful for.

Amazing?

Yes, very.

She talks about falling in love with life...the same way you would fall in love with a person.

Looking for things to love everywhere.

Yes, there are things to love everywhere.

I felt as I read her words that a lightbulb was going on upstairs.

I live for these moments.

So many authors say the same thing but they don't say it the same way and sometimes just the right combination of words makes all the difference.

So, I decided to really follow her words of wisdom and guess what?

My day has been better than lots of days that came before this one.

I mentally listed the reasons I am grateful for my children.

Specific things about each of them.

My husband.

The vice president of our bank who is our friend and saved our ass a couple years ago.

And by ass I really mean house.

Then I got busy. I did that laundry, those dishes.again. but I said thankyou to the soap and the water and the washing machine. I said thank you to my dog for being such wonderful companion for 15 years. I listed some furniture on craigslist that I have been wanting to do for 3 months. yes, three.

I thanked the internet, the dude who created craigslist. I thanked my legs for supporting me and allowing me to walk anywhere I choose anytime I choose. I thanked my tea kettle and my husband for buying it, his employer for giving him the money to be able to buy it, the maker of the tea pot....

sound a little over the top?

I don't think so.

I think this is what Abraham means by going on a rampage of appreciation and guess what?

IT FEELS GOOD...MAKE THAT.... GREAT.

I highly recommend it.

Skeptical?

Well, you have nothing to lose and EVERYTHING to gain.

Try it for just one day and then let me know the miracles that start to rush your way.

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that

my inner and outer life depend on the labors of

 other men living and dead, and that I must exert

myself in order to give in the same measure as

I have received and am still receiving."

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)