Today I am grateful for beautiful spaces.
Today I am grateful for people who have the talent to create calm, serene, and cosy spaces.
We have been staying at Spicers Sangoma Retreat in the Blue mountains and there are so many lovely places to sit and read a book, meditate and enjoy your own company and those of others.
Our room at Sangoma Spicers Retreat
The dining room
Another beautiful space at Sangoma Spicers Resort
Until next time
Today I am grateful to be able to travel.
Today I am grateful that On Saturday David and I were in Sydney with friends. We had a lovely day. We caught up with my sister and then David’s oldest friend Antony and his wife Catherine.
Today I am grateful that Saturday evening we had dinner with our friends Rachel and Shannon and then went and had a look at Vivid in Sydney.
Vivid
Sydney Opera House Lite Up
Sunrise at Sangoma
The view from our room
The proteas are stunning
The view near the end of our walk
The bottom of the valley during our walk
Today I am grateful for my amazing Saturday.
Today I am grateful I was given the opportunity to be the guest speaker at the Right Royal Affair. This is the big fund raiser for the Royal Brisbane and women’s Hospital Foundation. Over 500 people go and it is a very gala event.
I was very surprised to be asked. I was asked to speak at a dinner last year and I thought that was my way of giving back to the Royal and sharing the story about my accident and my recovery. This time I shared not only the story about my accident but I was able to share my connection with the Royal Brisbane. My dad was a vascular surgeon at the Royal and I used to visit patients with him, I trained at the Royal and I spent ten years as a registered nurse at the Royal. I was then a patient at the Royal in 2015 for 3 weeks.
I developed life long friendships from the Royal and I am sure that is where I learnt to laugh and love life. We were exposed to so much of the terrible side of life.
Jan, Jane, Joy and Jenny – friends from my training days
The day we graduated.
The four of us together again last week.
It was such a big week last week. It was 2 years to the day from the accident when I did my speech. I also finished all my hours for my Graduate Diploma in Counselling. It feels like life is going to have some very exciting new beginnings.
About to speak.
Sami Lukas and I
My friend Cass George and I
Until next time
Today I am grateful for winter in my garden. Whoever planted this garden did a beautiful job. I have different things in it that flower at different times during the year.
Today I am grateful for the hibiscus.
Today I am grateful for the roses.
Today I am grateful for the golden pender.
Today I am grateful for the camellias.
Today I am grateful for the geraniums.
What have you got flowering in your garden this month?
Until next time
Today I am grateful for comfortable pajamas and warm beds. Today I am at home tucked up in bed having succumbed to the cold all my children have had. But I am grateful for all things that make life more comfortable when you are sick.
Today I am grateful for boxes of tissues.
Today I am grateful for my warm, comfortable bed.
Today I am grateful for panadol and strepsils.
Today I am grateful for good books.
Today I am grateful for warm cups of tea and vegemite toast.
Today I am grateful for heaters and warm socks.
And hopefully tomorrow I will feel better!
Until next time
I have been absent from blogging for quite a while because life has been really busy. That does not mean I have not had many things to be grateful for. So …..
Today I am grateful that I have finished all my assignments for my Grad Dip in Counselling. I hope all I have left now is to finish placement.
Today I am grateful for a day getaway to the beach. David and I are down the coast for the day as we have many tradesman working on stuff that has been affected by the sea air. It is a lovely place to spend the day.
Today I am grateful for the beautiful wedding I went to on Sunday. David’s uncle got married. It was a lovely day filled with love. I wish the lovely couple all the happiness in the world.
Today I am grateful for having a beautiful Mothers’ Day. I had breakfast at Mum’s with all the family and then went to a beautiful wedding in the afternoon. All the children are busy doing exams and assignments but they all took time out of their schedule organise flowers for me and to spend time with David and I.
Today I am grateful for the rain we have had over the last week. I have so many things flowering in the garden.
Until next time
Today I am grateful to be free.
Today I am grateful to be able to enjoy the most beautiful sights in the world whenever I feel like it.
Today I am grateful to be able to wear whatever I want.
Today I am grateful to be able to choose whatever god I want to believe in.
Today I am grateful I am able to choose to be vegetarian , vegan, gluten free or whatever else I do or do not want to eat.
Today I am grateful I can write , say, or sing whatever I choose.
Today I am grateful to be able to choose how I vote.
Today I am grateful I live in Australia .
https://youtu.be/xx4zxcSv6L4
Until next time
This morning I am grateful for how content I feel.
Today I am grateful for the beautiful breakfast I just ate – scrambled eggs and parsley on toast. The eggs came from our chickens and the parsley from our veggie patch.
Today I am grateful for sitting in the kitchen with the windows open breathing in the cool air and smelling the bush.
Today I am grateful for sitting and listening to beautiful music while I sit and eat breakkie. My playlist of choice this morning is Women’s Acoustic Morning.
Today I am grateful that all my family are home and enjoying the holidays.
Today I am grateful for the beautiful meal David cooked for us all last night. I was at placement all day yesterday and then uni last night. When I got up yesterday morning David was putting lamb shanks in the slow cooker. We had them for dinner last night with mashed potato. They were delicious.
Today I am grateful that I don’t have anything particular to do today.
Today is a good day.
Until next time
Today I thought I would share why I blog.
This is an old post that I am re sharing .
I started blogging quite a few years ago to communicate my travel adventures with my friends and family. Quite a few of my family did not have Facebook and blogging was a useful tool to communicate with them.
After my accident on the 10th June, 2015 I had a damaged left arm and I am left handed. I have journaled for years and couldn’t do this because of my injuries. I decided that I would use my blog to record the five things I was grateful about each day. It was again a useful tool – it communicated my progress to my friends and family and writing what I was grateful about kept me positive in the months I was recovering.
In the last few months my life has got busier and returned pretty much to normal. I am continuing to blog my grateful list. We are also traveling again so I am again using my blog to communicate our travels and record our travels for my own record. I have also started to use my blog to comment about subjects that I am passionate about – for example why it is useful to practice gratitude, how I believe a good life is organized, choosing to live with love and not fear, and subjects like terrorism and Death. I have also had a few posts that have detailed why I am not grateful.
Each time I think about stopping my blog I seem to get a message from someone to say it is helping them in some way. This seems to be that someone is low and reading all my grateful posts gives them a pick me up, reading my ungrateful posts I think reminds us all that it is unrealistic to be happy every day and that one unhappy day does not mean an unhappy life and also that it is possible to turn around unhappiness. Some days I do feel like I am putting my soul out into the public arena but I am trying to be honest about my life and the way I feel. Some days I think I have put too much of what is going on in my head into my blog but I will continue to do this because if my blog helps one person in even some small way or gives just one person some enjoyment that is a reason for me to keep blogging.
Thank you to all of you who read my blog and I hope in some small way I am making a difference to someone’s life.
Until next time…..
Today I am grateful for connection. Last weekend David and I were away working on our relationship and our connection. This weekend we have been at home in Brisbane connecting with lovely friends.
I know it is important to be comfortable and to have a roof over my head and food in my tummy but connection with others is so important for my wellbeing . I believe what most people want from life is connection to others.
Yesterday I walked on Mt Cootha, went to a Charity Race Day and then went on to a Housewarming for a friend.
While I was walking on Mt Cootha I talked to a lovely lady called Naomi who I have crossed paths with many times in the last few years. Her husband was president of the Kindy P and C committee when my youngest was at Kindy. We have ridden our bikes together. We have run together. We were both nurses. Naomi made the most beautiful meals for me when I was sick. Yesterday we talked about our children, we talked about Naomi’s dissertation. Naomi is a breast feeding specialist and has written a paper that has been published about breast feeding. She is the most amazing lady and it was so lovely to chat yesterday and we talked a lot about the importance of love and connection.
I then had breakkie with my lovely friend Nicci Heath. We talk a lot about the value of friendship and connection and I am lucky to have Nicci as my friend.
The charity day I went to yesterday was to raise money for a conductive education program for young people with disabilities. CEQ provides an option for families who seek programs that address individual needs in a group setting. It is about improving these young people’s ability and opportunity to connect with others. To donate to this organization here is the link: Conductive Education Queensland. Once again I connected with old friends. I spent time talking to a lovely lady Sam. We used to holiday together many years ago and have not seen each other for years. We had so much to talk about and it felt just like old times.
David and I then went on to a housewarming last night. I am aware we were there to see a friends new house but it was actually not about the house but about the people in the home. It was another opportunity to connect with old and new friends. I really enjoyed the company of everyone I spoke to to and was grateful to be asked to share the evening in Geoff’s home.
This morning this quote popped up on my Facebook feed which I think is very appropriate
Thank you to all those people who took time to speak to me yesterday. I am grateful to be able to listen to your stories and I am grateful for the connection we have.
Until next time