Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving Gratitude

Boston, MA - On the eve of Thanksgiving, I'm taking this moment to share for what I am most grateful. My short list includes: family, teachers (Shiva Rea and Paul Muller-Ortega), friends, a newfound path of health, and abundance in the forms of employment, housing, food, clothing, and transportation.

Highlights of the year with those for whom I'm grateful are a big family reunion in the Philippines in June, assisting Shiva Rea's Summer Pranification Teacher's Retreat in August, meditation retreats in Sedona, AZ with Paul Muller-Ortega, and Uhuru Afrika, the best monthly dance party in Boston created by DJ Adam Gibbons.

At the end of class last night before sitting up to chant OMs, I invited the students to take a moment and bring into their awareness something for what they are thankful. I chose to create that opening because in our fast-paced life we need to occasionally make conscious efforts to connect to the abundance that we already possess rather than experiencing loss because we cannot have something or haven't reached a certain point in one's life.

As pithy as is the story of the Pilgrims, the ritual of family gathering is an important embodied action in which we must participate or else we create our own separation. So, I wish everyone a warm and heart-filled holiday.