Sharing Thanks

Morning Meditations: Daily Reflections to Awaken Your Power to Change I love reading books that make me think. Today I want you to think about a book your thankful to have read. Growing up I was inspired by Richard's Bach's, "Jonathon Livingston Seagul" I loved Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and I confess Shirley Conran's "Lace" was my first great summer read.  This week I am enjoying W.W. Norton & Company's book, "Morning Meditations" I love to start my day reading  a few meditations on gratitude,communication, forgiveness, mindfulness, and reflect on ways I can lead a purposeful, happy life. What book are you thankful to have read? I love hearing about what inspires you. Please share a book you enjoyed reading and how it made you think and feel.

Pilgrim cookies from Fairway Thanksgiving is coming. I was thankful to see these adorable pilgrim cookies at my favorite grocery store Fairway. I remember as a kid looking forward to the chocolate Thanksgiving Turkeys my grandmother would give to us as a treat. Part of the fun is preparing the feast,making special family recipes and honoring traditions. One of our family traditions is to wake up on Thanksgiving morning to bagels, and watch the Macy's Day Parade on TV.We love watching all of the broadway performers, and the fantastic marching bands. My husband's family likes to make sauerkraut for Thanksgiving. It's a Baltimore thing. Now whenever I have sauerkraut I think of Thanksgiving too. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it celebrates family. No gifts are exchanged, we just enjoy parades, savoring good food and conversation with our families and friends, and a little college football. Most of all I like the spirit of Thankfulness it brings. At our dinner ...

Liz comforting our dog Oreo. Day 16: Sharing Thanks November Turkey Thanks Challenge Today's challenge: Thank someone who showed compassion to you when you made a mistake. I was a little out of sorts yesterday. I was clumsy. I went to Dunkin Donuts and my big pocketbook swung around and knocked off a glass coffee mug on the display. I picked up the broken pieces and brought it up to the counter and explained what happened when I ordered my coffee. To my surprise they said it was ok and thanked me for bringing them the broken cup. I offered to pay for the cup but they refused to charge me for it.  I sighed a huge relief. I also want to thank my friend Deborah for lending me her music folder at our concert last night/ I had left my folder at the last rehearsal and it got packed away. I really appreciated her kindness of lending it generously with softspoken words. Let's face it we all make mistakes. We are not perfect. Compassion helps us pick our selves up, learn...

Me using my talent playing with the South Shore Symphony TURKEY THANKS Gratitude Challenge: Day 15 Share a gratitude story about being thankful for a talent you have. I want to also thank my good friend Monesha who gave me the idea for this gratitude prompt. I was thankful to have lunch out with my daughter Becky and her friend and we were talking about my blog and I was asking them if they had any good suggestions for different ways to appreciate. Thanks Monesha and Becky for a fun lunch! I am thankful for my musical talent. I love playing the violin with the South Shore Symphony. I have met so many terrific people through music. I have nurtured my talent through lessons and practice over the years. Thanks to all the music teachers I have had who helped me become a better musician. I also want to thank our concert master Susan. I had the joy of sitting first stand one year in the orchestra and Susan taught me a lot of great fingering and musicality by getting to play as...

Sunflowers from a Riverhead farmstand Day 13: #TurkeyThanks Gratitude Challenge: Today I want you to think of something unexpected you are thankful for! Everyday has something unexpected about it. Today I received an unexpected gift from a friend. She gave me a pair of warm shoes for the winter. It's a wonderful feeling to a get an unexpected gift! I also found a penny while walking home from lunch. It was nice to walk to lunch instead of taking the car. This helped me reach my walking fitness goal for today. I always will pick up a good luck penny if its facing heads up. If its tales, I turn the penny over and leaved it for someone else to discover and pass on the good luck. What are you thankful for today that surprised you? I love to hear your gratitude stories.

DAY 12: #TurkeyThanks Gratitude Challenge Give Thanks For Something Silly! Oh know they are going to turn me into Pumpkin Pie! Today's challenge is to focus on the little silly things your grateful for. I happened to come across this upside down pumpkin on my morning walk today and it gave me a chuckle. Then I also noticed this. Yes it's a swinging Squirrel. I am always amazed by seeing something new in everyday places. It's what I focus on that makes me notice the silly simple joys in life. Be grateful for being amused! Share something that your grateful for that was silly!

I love this picture of a floral flag I took this summer at Jones Beach. The red and white flowers look  like they are proudly waving in the air. Day 11: #TurkeyThanks Gratitude Challenge Make a gratitude list to give thanks to your country. I am thankful for our freedom of speech, for a nation whose citizens respect the outcomes of our elections which enable us to have a peaceful transition of power. I am thankful for our constitution and our ability as a people to be able to keep amending it. I am thankful for the separation between church and state which makes America one of the great melting pots. We are made up of a multitude of different people, with different ethnic backgrounds, and practice different religions. I am thankful for America where creative expression and innovation still thrives. I would also like to thank our veterans who have sacrificed to protect our freedoms and our nation.

There is nothing better than having your own dance party. I saw this video today on twitter and it mad me laugh. I love the energy and the pets in the video watching this cleaning dance routine. I'd be thankful if my husband cleaned the house like this. Let's be honest I'd be thankful if cleaned the house without dancing. For today's challenge be thankful for that feeling you get when your busting a move. Share a story about when you were caught dancing to yourself. I have a habit of doing dance moves while I'm sitting at a red light listening to my tunes. Yes, I'm over 50 and I dance in my car. I looked over to the left turn lane next to me, and two young men were hysterical that I was dancing. It gave me a laugh. Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself! I was thankful I gave them a laugh and a story. I am always thankful to dance, it just feels good!

Golden leaves embracing the sun. I am thankful for the light and warmth of the sun. I think cat's are masters of finding thesunny spots in the house. It is amazing the when a ray of light comes in through the window and practically kisses your skin. I just saw an amazing pink from a sunset. As each day gets a little darker it makes me appreciate the light. Today I want you to think about the light in your life, and radiate appreciation.  I thought about this prompt when I walked at Planting Fields Arboretum today. The light made these yellow leaves turn to gold. I am also thankful for the people in my life who light me up with their kind deeds, words, and smiles. I was thankful to run into a friend at the grocery story. I am thankful to my parents for visiting my daughter Liz at college this weekend. I was thankful to share cinematic light by seeing Intersteller with my husband and daughter last night. Love is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. What light were...

Thanksgiving Duckies Welcome to Day 8 of the #TurkeyThanks gratitude challenge. Today I want you to focus on the friends in your life that your thankful for. I am blessed with a few very close friends. I got to see 2 of them today! Thanks to my friend Stella, we got to go for a walk at Hecksher Park in Huntington. We enjoyed the fresh air fall colors and watching the swans in the pond. Then I got to walk to Hempstead Lake State Park with my friend Margaret. After our long walk we enjoyed some wine, cheese and these delicious new cranberry and sage Triscuits. I spotted these cute Thanksgiving Ducks at her house. They made me smile. I love spending time with my friends, talking, sharing stories. Thanks to my friends I hit 14,000 steps on my Google Fit. That's a personal record for me. Share your thanks for some of the friends in your life. Life is more meaningful when we have people to share our joys and sorrows with. I'm thankful today we got to share a joyful day out...

Blue Hydrangea on a November Day Today's Challenge, is to go outside and take a walk and look for something beautiful that your thankful for.  Bring your phone or your camera and take a picture and share this beauty. Email me your picture at sharingthanks@gmail.com or Tweet it to me at  @sharingthanks  . Today I saw these beautiful Blue and Purple Hydrangea's. I am enjoying seeing these last blooms of November. Flowers always make me happy. Love these deep hues. I enjoy seeing the patterns of color and nature's wizardry. A few weeks ago I even saw some Monarch butterflies flittering around some wild flowers at the Norman Levy Preserve. When I see something beautiful, I take a moment to stop, look, and then breathe it in. It energizes me and I love taking pictures to capture this moment. Sometimes looking in my camera helps me focus to see the beauty. With the days getting shorter and cooler I relish being outside and capturing the colors of the changing season. I ...

Organic Mountain High Chai Tea at Spuntino's Today's challenge is thinking about something or someone your thankful for that gives you comfort. There is something comforting about sipping a good cup of tea. I enjoyed trying this new Organic Mountain High Chai from  Two Leaves Tea  at a cool new Tapas Italian Restuarant called Spuntino on Old Country Road, in Westbury, NY. The tea warmed me up from the inside out. It was the end to a perfect healthy meal, of brussel sprouts, and butternut squash ravioli. Small satisfying portions. Drinking a hot cup of tea any where warms my soul. Growing up I enjoyed having tea with my good friends in high school. We would make a hot pot of tea and share our hopes and dreams of the future. I still love getting together with my friends and sharing a pot of tea. My mom is a tea drinker, and would often make me a cup of tea. I have also been know to cozy up with a good book, a cup of tea soaking in a hot tub taking a bath. So relaxing. Sha...

Turkey discovered during my morning walk! Thanks to everyone leaving comments on facebook, twitter and my blog!  Today's Gratitude Challenge is to think of an activity you did today that your thankful for! Today I was thankful for my walk around the neighborhood.   I love taking my dog Oreo for 2 or 3 walks a day. We also have a fenced in yard which she likes to play in. I love bringing my phone and am always surprised and different things that I see during my daily walks that amuse me. This Turkey on a lawn gave me a smile. The #TurkeyThanks Challenge has Turkey on my brain! The trees in my neighborhood are turning fiery red, orange, and yellow. It's an autumn rainbow! Autumn leaves in East Meadow  Walking is also a great way to stay fit. I just started using the Free Google Fit App to track my activity level with the goal of improving my health. It was easy, I just downloaded on my phone, and let's face it I always have my phone on me, so it is a bu...

Today's gratitude challenge is to think of a song or piece of music your thankful for. Music speaks to us on an emotional level. It can energize us, uplift us, and sometimes even move us to tears. Often a song can trigger memories of a special celebration or bring you back to a specific time and place in your life. This Fall I have had the priviledge to play a ground breaking concert with the South Shore Symphony and Keith Emerson from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Can you find me playing in the violin section in the video. Our orchestra got to share the stage with a legend. Music genres collided. Jeffrey Biegel, played Emerson's piano Concerto brilliantly. It is a moment which I will always treasure! I am also always thankful when I hear Madonna's "Crazy For You" on the radio because it is our wedding song. Earth, Wind, and Fire's, "September" gets me dancing and transports me back to my disco days of college. Share a song that your thankful fo...

Volunteers collecting food for Island Harvest at Stop & Shop Today's Gratitude Challenge is to be thankful for the helpers in our lives! Think about the people that have helped you or someone else. Take this space to thank them for making a difference in your life or the lives of others. We all have a need to help someone if given the opportunity. Yesterday these are the people that were my helpers! Thanks to these  beautiful volunteers for collecting food for Island Harvest. These smiling girls greeted me at Stop and Shop yesterday. I was happy they gave me the opportunity to do something kind. I bought several items to donate with hopes of feeding hungry families in need on Long Island.  Thanks to my daughter Becky who helped me peel potatoes while I was cooking a beef stew in the crockpot. This hearty meal sustained us on this cold, windy, fall day! Thanks to the stranger who held the door open for me at Dunkin Donuts. Small kindnesses from strangers always mak...

GOD ONLY KNOWS VIDEO FROM BBC Watch this video and it will make you smile! Beautiful things happen when musicians collaborate in the the name of Charity. Thanks BBC for making me smile watching this video today! Another thing that made me smile today was watching the leaves dance to blustery weather. Thanks to my husband Spencer who put air in my car's tires in the pouring rain yesterday. It made me feel loved. Thanks for the coffee talk this morning shout out to my good friend Sejal. Thanks to my friend Ellen who I enjoyed catching up with this morning! I am looking forward to hear what made you smile today! Tweet @sharingthanks #TurkeyThanks anything that made you smile today. Or just leave a comment below. Enjoy the video and smile!

That's not a turkey it's a ROOSTER!  TAKE THE TURKEY THANKS NOVEMBER GRATITUDE CHALLENGE! Start November by learning to cultivate a grateful heart ready to bloom just in time for Thanksgiving! Gratitude is a heart muscle that can be flexed by the simple act of listing what your grateful for each day. Sharing what we are grateful can inspire others to think about gratitude in a different way! It's easy to participate in this challenge. Here are a few different ways you can start! Share what your thankful for in the comments of my blog Sharing Thanks! Everyday in November I will be giving you a new idea on "How to be grateful" and posting what I am thankful for. Or you can email me at sharingthanks@gmail.com! Or email me a picture of something your grateful for! I will share your gratitude in a post! Like my facebook page by clicking the button on the side of the blog or going to http://www.facebook.com/sharingthanksblogspot. You can post a pict...