As we celebrate the “Hallmark Holiday” as many like to call Valentine’s Day, I’d like to honor the things for which I’m grateful…I encourage you to do this journal-entry-type-exercise, too. When we shine a light on all the GOOD, the more space we create to be of service to others, as well as to receive the love and gratitude of others, not to mention the love and good energy that others will feel from us. Being an active participant in the love and the good of your world is an awesome thing. If we select to do one thing well, let it be this one: let it be love.
I am grateful for this old lap-top.
I am grateful for my fingers that move swiftly as I type, so far, arthritis free, even though it runs in my family.
I am grateful for the warm blanket wrapped around my legs as I sit this early morning composing this email. I am grateful that my blanket smells like fabric softener.
I am grateful for the two cats that are resting nearby. I am grateful for the personality they spill all over my home. I am grateful when Preston, the grey tabby, tangles himself within a roll of paper towels, full of fervor, offering me opportunity to exercise a better relationship with patience.
I am grateful for my daughter, her creative mind, her healthy body, and her willingness to think deeply more times than not. I am grateful to know her loving heart. I am grateful for the ability to invest in her growing life and mind. I am grateful my part of her expensive tuition, as it has offered me an on-going opportunity to show up financially. I am grateful for the life she has given to me simply by being her mother.
I am grateful for my mom, who at 82, still has a sparkle in her beautiful blue eyes. I am grateful that I can look to her for guidance. I am grateful for my stepdad who loves my mom very much. I am grateful for their demonstration that true love is real.
I am grateful for my older brother, who at 55, has become one of my closest friends.
I am grateful for my car, that it is spacious, comfortable, paid for, and will likely run for another 150,000 miles. I am grateful my car gets me to and from Dallas so that I can visit my brother, and other Dallas friends for whom I am also grateful. I am grateful that my car will be my vehicle to get me from Texas to the beautiful Northeast this summer and for the next year, as I will be nomadically living my life.
I am grateful for my career. I am grateful that I decided to go back to school when I was 31 to get an education which would ultimately allow me a path that is of service and support to others. I am grateful for each client and the honor of knowing them. I am grateful for their lives.
I am grateful for my older sister and our shared love for movies. I am grateful for our relationship as both of us get older, wiser, kinder, closer.
I am grateful for my staff who, somehow, gravitated towards my practice. I am grateful that they find support and stability to build a practice of their own that helps support their beautiful families. I am grateful to be a small part of each of their lives.
I am grateful for any financial rubs I’ve experienced throughout my adult life. I am grateful for each opportunity to pay a bill, or a debt. I am grateful for perspective adjustments.
I am grateful for tougher times, as each tough time gives me the opportunity to learn that I have exactly what I need to rise to a challenging occasion.
I am grateful for the friends who have given me space to stretch in the past couple of years as I have found my creative voice and medium. I am grateful that they believe in me. I am grateful for their understanding of me as I have tucked myself behind closed doors to devotedly write, create, and grow a version of me of whom I am proud.
I am grateful for the course correction I experienced in late 2022. I am grateful for the book I’ve written because of the course correction. I am grateful for the spiritual awakening I’ve experienced because of the course correction. I am grateful for deciding to use my course correction to be of better service to each client, to my daughter, to my family, to myself. I am again, and always, grateful for the beautiful ability to adjust my perspective.
I am grateful for my walks on the trail. I am grateful for my physical ability to experience so many miles, no matter the weather.
Now your turn.
In helpfulness,
Beth Clardy Lewis, LPC-S
Founder and Creative Director of Vervewell
