Gratitude for a Week of Celebrations, Challenges, Friends
& New Experiences
My
spiritual journey and growth towards appreciating the present rather than
having a focus on the past or future served me well this week – a week filled
with celebrations, challenges, the support of friends and family and embracing
new experiences.
To
begin the week we celebrated my husband’s birthday. We’ve now been together 9 ½
years and every day is a blessing. Our relationship is also a testament that
learning from past relationships, accepting people as they are, and taking
chances on love in mid-life can lead one to true happiness. My heart still sings when I think of him. I
am filled with gratitude to have him in my life.
At
work I found myself having to stretch my intellect and reach beyond my comfort
zone to embrace my first assignment in my new role as a regional coordinator
for corporate liability. I found myself
excited and slightly unsettled by the challenges of dealing with an unfamiliar
line of business in a new jurisdiction in which I am collaborating with a new
team. All in all, I’ve found the new challenges exhilarating and I am grateful
for the opportunity.
Thursday
my parental units, Richard & Eileen
Copeland, celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary. Not only have
they weathered the years together, they have also nurtured each other through
good times and challenging times; educated
& raised their 3 children to be independent well-rounded citizens;
contributed to their community and church with heart & soul, time and
money; experienced the good fortune to travel the world; and genuinely still
like each other and laugh together every day. My husband and I aspire to be
like them when we grow up. I am grateful
for their love, the lessons they taught, the independence they inspired, and
their continued health and joie de vivre.
Yesterday
morning my beloved father-in-law, Norm Harrington, underwent triple by-pass
surgery in Toledo. He had 90% blockage
in 3 arteries and it was a stressful time. But we were blessed by an outpouring
of prayers, positive energy, support and love from friends and family. I asked Archangel Raphael to guide the
surgeon and wore the healing color green. My mom, who has a direct line of
communication to God, lit candles for him. She is the master candle lighter for
healing! I am filled with gratitude that the surgery was successful and
uneventful, which should result in Norm being with us for years.
Ah
serendipity! By wonderful happenstance I decided to stop by Dharma Studio in
Winchester on my way home from a meeting and dinner with friends working on a
project for the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation. As luck would have it, I found my friends
Maria and Jill who had planned to practice music together. Jill suggested we
instead go to a House Concert hosted by the warm and welcoming Wendy Werner and
Gary Auerbach. I’d never been to a House Concert and wasn’t sure what to
expect. But the evening was delightful. For a donation I had the privilege to
experience an amazing performance by singer / songwriter Craig Bickhardt and
his daughter Ainslinn. What good fortune to enjoy such inspiring acoustic music
in an intimate setting. What a week of
blessings!
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