Hello there all of you. I know you’re there, as I hear from many of you individually. That is a real treat for me, & I thank you.

Today (a Thursday this time) I would like to start with some personal appreciations, a bit like my friend Christine who eagerly requested – at a WoWW session in February 2019 (face-to-face, not-at-home):

“Let’s start with ‘The Gratefuls’ today!”

Appreciation after Midpoint 2020

Today I am grateful for:

~ teachers and new friends at the Summer Solstice retreat with www.thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk 400 miles south from here, this year shared over Zoom. We all celebrated at home, rejoicing;

~ “R. E. ” for spending a week’s retreat “with me” (this time at a 600 mile distance) exploring themes and variations on cultivating and celebrating clarity and easefulness when ‘Life Intervenes’;

~ Brora Co-op for the luscious bargains of fruit and veg that I buy cheaply and use lavishly, as most of my own aren’t yet harvest ready;

~ my partner for spending the time he would usually be at SABI Scything Festivals, on keeping his blade sharp at Dalefield, ‘Eric’s Field’, and The Allotment Site, and for photographing flowers there;

~ our son’s shrewd and sustained responses to my communication requests (I have moderate hearing loss) and to my online security requirements, even though with Zoom he declares: “You’re on your own there, Mum!” [& I am learning from experience];

~ dancing pals for providing me with sound tracks to keep me twirling round the kitchen [& again I am learning from experience];

~ my fellow flower-spotter Diana, who (just like me) excitedly shouts “Oo-look!” when she notices “some new delight” in Brora;

~ the quiet humour of my meditation teacher Bodhipaksa;

~ my appetite (even voraciousness) for nourishment of body, soul, heart, mind;

~ sun-kissed Brian who is (at this very moment) pressure-washing my front fence prior to painting it. Hurrah for lovely neighbours!

Would you like to take a pause just now,

and list your own “Gratefuls” right here?

(in your ThoughtBook, dating and signing them)

Appreciation

Today I am grateful for:

~

~

~

or write an intention to do

‘The Gratefuls’ in an hour’s time, or

in five hours’ time, or at bedtime

Brain Dump & Golden Threadwork

For today’s prompts, I invite you to visit a stand-alone post from 2019

writing exercise: threes of things

and follow the instructions there. Enjoy!

Further Resources

  • One of the sources of “home, rejoicing” in the Labrum family vocabulary is a hymn based on the Psalm 23 of the Old Testament. It appears, for example, as number 138 in The United Methodist Hymnal.
1. The King of love my shepherd is,
whose goodness faileth never.
I nothing lack if I am his,
and he is mine forever.

2. Where streams of living water flow,
my ransomed soul he leadeth;
and where the verdant pastures grow,
with food celestial feedeth.

3. Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed,
but yet in love he sought me;
and on his shoulder gently laid,
and home, rejoicing, brought me.

4. In death’s dark vale I fear no ill,
with thee, dear Lord, beside me;
thy rod and staff my comfort still,
thy cross before to guide me.

5. Thou spreadst a table in my sight;
thy unction grace bestoweth;
and oh, what transport of delight
from thy pure chalice floweth!

6. And so through all the length of days,
thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
within thy house forever.
Text: Henry W. Baker, 1821-1877 https://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh138

Choose another phrase from this hymn that is evocative for you, or a phrase from my appreciation list or your own, and use it as a starting point for your Golden Thread to follow.

  • A different interface with appreciation practice is here:

A New Welcome to Grateful Living; The Value of Our Values; Grateful Changemaker: Living Room Conversations; Poetry and more…