A heaping helping of gratitude and reading recommendations for the holidays
Dec 06, 2022 2:06 pm
Just a few days ago, those of us in the USA sat around a table with family and friends (some we liked and some we didn't), pigged out on foods we wouldn't normally cook, watched football or Hallmark or Lifetime channel holiday movies, and we declared that we were thankful. That's what November and Thanksgiving is all about, right?
Well, it got me to thinking. Why aren't we grateful year round? Why don't we express our thanks on a daily basis?
Then my angels and spirit guides shouted, "Hallulejah! She gets it!"
So today, I come to you with thanks and gratitude for subscribing to my newsletter, for expressing interest in my book babies, and for putting up with my ravings about all things books and the supernatural & spiritual aspects of daily life without judgment. You even put up with my ghost stories each year for October without complaint. For all that, I am thankful every day. And when someone replies to an email or comments, I am doubly grateful.
I'll be the first to say I have not always been this little ray of sunshine (if you know me well, you're laughing because I've never been that). But the last few years I've been working on it. Not only did that improve my outlook but it improved what I perceive as important in life. It wasn't easy to get to this place and there's still plenty of work to be done. So, in addition to giving thanks daily, I wanted to give a huge shout out to someone who was instrumental in turning my life around... Jennifer Lonnberg and the Embodied Grace Community.
A few years back I was fed up, depressed, hopeless, and feeling all sorts of guilt for "not just being grateful for what I had." After all, how many times have we heard that lovely, (annoying) nugget of advice whenever we've felt low? I was at a low point where I was just going to give up trying anymore, trying to make more for myself, trying to achieve anything "for" myself, and tossing my laptop of all my stories into the nearest dumpster. Driving to the hospital where my mom had been sent to by ambulance with congestive heart failure, I cried and screamed to the empty car, "I give up! I must not deserve to be happy so f*ck it! I. GIVE.UP!"
While sitting in that hospital room with my mom I pulled out my Kindle to while away the time because I wasn't going anywhere (physically or in life apparently). I flicked through my library and found an unusual title, "The Secret Experiences of a Closet Psychic." I didn't recall purchasing that one but the title was catchy so I opened it up and began reading. I read it straight through. I cried, laughed, cried some more. The book, you see, wasn't about being psychic, it was so much more. Finally, reading in black and white, I realized that I wasn't alone in feeling distraught over my life, for being unhappy and then more so because I felt guilty for being unhappy.
And more importantly, there was a way out of the tar pit I was stuck in. I left that hospital room for the first time with a smile on my face and feeling lighter. Immediately, I perused Amazon to see if she had other books. She did... "Embodied Grace: A Woman's Path to Empowerment: How to Claim Peace, Joy, and Abundance to Create a Life You'll Love." Read it and had more "Aha" moments that made me smile more. Then, I looked up her Facebook Group, Embodied Grace Community and met so many others just like me--different lives but all searching for how to get through the gunk and negativity and create the lives we wanted, we dreamed of, we deserved (that last was probably one of the hardest things to learn and accept - that I am deserving, I am worthy - I work on that belief daily).
Anyway, I could write a dissertation on how my life has changed since that fateful day. In 24 hours I went from hopeless to hopeful. All because a little book somehow ended up in my Kindle library. That day, my life began to turn around because I got out of my own way, did a lot of healing negative beliefs and generational "trauma drama", and more. I can't say I've achieved everything I've ever wanted but I am accepting that I am a work in progress and my life is what I make of it. I am happy.
For that, I wish this holiday season to shout out a huge THANK YOU to Jennifer Lonnberg and the Embodied Grace Community. These days, I write down what I am thankful for in a notebook every day along with affirmations that I also speak to myself in the mirror. I make a daily practice of gratitude and have found that is the key to joy.
So this holiday season and every day, I challenge you daily to give gratitude as a gift to others, and most importantly as a gift to yourself.
***If you'd like to see more about what I'm talking about, check out Jennifer's Embodied Grace Community Facebook group.***
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Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
A Heaping Helping of Recommendations for Fantasy & Paranormal Romance Book Lovers this Holiday Season
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Need More?
Holiday Book Fairs for Every Fantasy/Paranormal Romance Reader
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