Sharing Thanks

It's January 7th and we will be taking down all of our Christmas decorations today. I am thankful to have our Christmas tree's lights and that wonderful pine smell! Today I am thankful for getting to spend some time with my daughters. I am also thankful to be feeling better after having a cold for the past few days! Thanks to my daughter Liz who brought some hot tea with honey and lemon. We enjoyed watching the dvd Spy. I managed to laugh and sneeze through the movie under a comfy blanket on the couch. Thanks to my daughter Becky who brought me to work and picked me up! Feels good to be driven around after being a taxi mom after all of these years. Thanks to Becky and Liz for joining me for lunch out today. We had fun sharing a meal and good conversation. Thanks to my daughter Liz for making dinner tonight while I was working. It was so great to come home to spaghetti with meat sauce. Yum!! Love a home cooked meal from my daughter. It may be one of the best simple joys...

Thankful to have a Lavazza coffee at Eately! Happy 2016! The new year is filled with promise, a fresh start and lofty goals. A time to reflect and steer our lives on a course for new adventures. I am always thoughtful this time of year. I enjoy looking back on the previous years adventures. I love looking at all the pictures from my phone that I have taken. They remind me of the places, people and beauty I've seen. I must admit I enjoyed 2015! I was having such a good time I got out of the habit of journaling about the good things that I am grateful for each day. I need a reboot! I've decided to start get back to basics and share what I am grateful for. I encourage you to go along with me on this journey! You can join in the fun in January by tweeting what your grateful using the #JanuaryGratitudeChallenge. I will be tweeting gratitude prompts during the month of January to help you share your simple joys! Join in the fun by taking a daily gratitude break and share s...

I am thankful for this warm and springlike December. I have been enjoying hiking in my favorite local parks. I love the bleak greys we often see this time of year. I filmed this short 30 second video from the pier at Norman Levy State Park. The Bay was calm and the sun's light was dancing on the water. I enjoyed viewing the beauty and just breathing in the energy and breathing out my stress. Use it to enjoy a small relaxation break

Angel at Rockefeller Center Kind people make all of our lives better, sometimes with simple gestures that enhance our lives and bring smiles to our faces. Today I am giving thanks for the wonderful people in my life. I am trying to go back to the basics of why I started my sharing thanks blog. To share a few things everyday that I am grateful for and to encourage you to share your gratitudes in the comments, or email me at www.sharingthanks@gmail.com and I can repost them. In this season of light and giving let us give thanks to the people who bring us of tidings of joy. I am thankful for my family. To my parents who taught me how to appreciate nature by taking us camping and on hikes. "Look at the Stars" is a mantra I have grown up with. They also taught me to work hard and play harder. The most important thing they have taught me was how to love and be loved. I am thankful to my fellow musicians in the South Shore Symphony. I am lucky to get to play the Nutcracker ...

Animated Favorites INSIDE OUT! vs MINIONS I love the movies! I have been enjoying movie nights with my film major daughters this summer. I love the experience of seeing movies in the theater. Our family loves going to  Regal movie theaters  because they have amazing caption high tech SONY glasses. My youngest daughter is deaf and she loves seeing movies with the subtitles that only she sees with the SONY glasses. We have seen a lot of great movies this summer. I am thankful to share these movie moments with you. We loved both Inside Out and the silliness of the Minions. Inside out takes us inside Riley's head as she learns to manage her feelings after the family moves her to the west coast. I loved Lewis Black's amazing anger voice. So happy to see a new imaginative animated film. I loved the depictions of Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger. I would have loved to see a Gratitude character. I wonderful ride into our amazing brains. We really need all of our em...

Liz dancing in a summer rain! We had a small heat wave earlier this week.  Temperatures were in the 90s! It was a hot summer day, and I was being a sloth and relaxing at home. I have been doing the Oprah and Deepak Chopra Manifesting Gratitude through grace meditation exercises. I don't like to watch TV during the day and I decided it was a good time to just sit and meditate to Day 4: Grace is replying. While I was meditating listening to Chopra's soothing voice, it started to rain. My daughter Liz was home and she said come outside. I thought she saw a rainbow? So I ran outside and it was a sun shower, raining hard. She was happily dancing in the rain. I joined her. The cool rain felt exhilarating! Its been a long time since I splashed in puddles. It was a joyful moment filled with Grace! After our water ballet in the rain, we both went in the house and changed into dry clothes. I was thankful to have shared this cool moment of joy with my daughter. What's helping you ...

White Wildflower at Norman Levy Park I had an epiphany at my morning meditation class today. At the end of the class which is held at our local library I heard the sound of a dog barking. It turned out to be someone's cell phone ringtone.  Sometimes my smart phone feels like a pavlovian dog. I jump everytime it rings, beeps, bells, and vibrates. We have all put ourselves on call 24/7 being available to the next facebook update, tweet, email, emergency, text, and phone call. When did we all become on call doctors to one another. The stress of being available to everyone all the time makes us jump when our phones vibrate!  I was thinking about what activities get me to turn off my phone. I turn off my phone for meditation class, for orchestra rehearsal, when I am at a play, or a movie. This got me thinking, I got that aha moment of clarity. I should turn off my phone when I am enjoying being out with my friends, at family gatherings, on my walks on the beach, or hikes in n...