I heard the Alanis Morrisette song Thank You today.  If you haven’t ever heard it, look it up.  If you have,  look it up again.   I highly recommend it.

Before I launch into anything else yoga-related, let me launch into something we should all practice, whether or not yoga is your thing. Let me say thank you.  For everything.  For everyone. 

Gratitude is a practice, and just like anything else we want to get good at, it takes some work.  Raise your hand if you are thankful when the grocery store line is back in the aisle.  Or when the drive-thru worker gives you the wrong soda.  Or when someone treats you in a way that you don’t believe you deserved.  What about when someone lets you in when traffic is jammed up?  Or when you have one item and the person in front of you says go ahead?  Or an old friend calls because you were on their mind? 

Here’s my spin on this…whatever it is that happened in past is what got us HERE.  I am thankful for my NOW, so I have to be grateful for every person, relationship, job, job loss, break-up, good habit, bad habit, death that got me HERE. It is where I am supposed to be. 

I have made it a habit to remember this.  I have made it a habit to look at the current situation from a learning standpoint.  There is always a lesson, and even though there may be great discomfort or loss, this too is a step forward.  It  is now…NOW.  Right this minute. 

These lessons aren’t always warm and fuzzy, but we come out on the other side with new awareness.  That is a gift beyond value. And when the lesson is warm and fuzzy…what kind of fabulous bonus is that?

So I sit here today, counting my many blessings.  Listening again to Alanis belt it out.  And I say THANK YOU.  For it all.

Namaste.