Being Thankful

At Thanksgiving we take the time to review our lives and acknowledge all we have to be thankful for.  It feels wonderful to be thankful, to fully realize and notice all that we are and all that we have.

If it feels so wonderful, why do many of us wait until this time of year to do this?

I think we get so caught up in the details of our daily lives (our habits and to do lists) that we forget to stop and pay attention to the essence of our lives, the beauty around us, the love and support we have.  Also, I think we put so much emphasis on where we want to be in the future that we lose sight of what is here now.

How often do you express gratitude for your life, just as it is right now?

What am I thankful for?  Here is a partial list:

  • My loving husband and the way he makes me laugh
  • My family, especially my beautiful nephews and niece
  • My wonderful friends and the experiences we have together
  • My good health
  • The beauty of nature
  • My daily exercise routine and healthy food choices
  • Seeing the growth of my clients as they discover and stretch themselves
  • The home my husband and I have made for ourselves

What are you thankful for?

Now it’s your turn. Take some time this month to think about, and write out, everything you are thankful for. Whether it’s the ability to see the leaves change and fall to the sounds of your children’s laughter to the successes you have had with your career.  Then each and every day, make it a point to remember and enjoy what you have.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Worry for no reason

Now I admit it, I focus on the future a lot and most often plan out every detail, sometimes to a fault so much so that I find myself worried about everything that may interfere with my plans.

That was very evident on the trip we took this fall to Europe.  Since it was our first trip overseas there were so many unknowns so I really overdid it with planning and especially the worrying.

I worried about how we would handle the 9+ hour flight to Rome overnight – would we be able to sleep, would we be hungry, would we be comfortable enough? Would we be jet lagged for the first few days or our trip?

I worried about whether we would find our hotel OK, would we be able to communicate well enough, would we feel unsafe in certain areas?

All of these worries were unfounded.  We slept 5 hours on the plane and had no jet lag at all until after we returned home.  We had more than enough food for our ride.  We found our hotel easily and communicated very well with the few Italian words we knew since most people we encountered spoke some English.

Yes planning did help here by wearing comfortable clothing, bringing protein bars and sleep aids, learning a few words of the language and mapping our route to the hotel – but the worry did not need to be there.

Did anything unforeseen occur during our trip, absolutely.   We could not find the train platform to Florence and finally did minutes before the train departed! We also both caught colds a few days into our cruise and had no cold remedies with us.

The moral of the story?  I can plan as best I can based on what I believe I need to be safe and comfortable, but I don’t have to worry about it.  And…I can’t plan for everything and can handle whatever comes our way that we didn’t expect!

When have you worried for no reason?

 

Ancestry

My great grandparents are from Italy – from the towns of Gragnano and Salerno, small towns near Naples and the Amalfi Coast.  My husbands grandparents are from Sicily, Mazara del Vallo.  That is one of the reasons we had always wanted to travel to Italy.

Though were were not able to visit the towns of our ancestry during our recent trip, it felt great knowing we were close. The port we visited in Sicily, Mesina, is on the opposite side of the island from where my husbands family is from, but our tour guide spoke of what Sicily was like in the early 1900’s (when his grandmother emmigrated) so we felt a connection to the history.

When we visited the port of Naples, our tour to the Amalfi coast took us past the town of Gragnano, where one set of my great grandparents were from.  The exciting part for me was when our tour guide spoke of the town and mentioned it was known all across italy for making the best pasta!  Though we didn’t visit, we found a bag of pasta from this area when we stopped in Amalfi.  Salerno is where the Amalfi drive ends so we were able to see a bit of that town, where the other set of great grandparents were from, on the conclusion of our coastal drive.

We hope to one day be able to visit these small towns in Italy where our ancestors walked and lived their lives.  This experience of our visiting our ancestry, not only in the places but in the foods we have grown up with, made us feel more grounded, more connected to our history and who we are.