Baby Bliss- Gratitude Journal – Day 9

Gratitude Journal- Day 9- October 18, 2016.

Baby Bliss

tiny-toes

☆ Tiny toes

☆ Sleeping soundly on mommy’s chest

☆ Rubbing her little red eyelids with her iddy biddy hands.

☆ Eyes lighting up at the sunlight beaming through the blinds.

☆ Looking at everything as if it is all so new and magical. Big blues eyes.

☆ Smiling, smiling and more smiling.

☆ Biting mommy’s hand without any teeth.

☆ Holding her own feet

☆ Warm and cozy onesie butt resting on my forearm. Haha! Warm and cozy head and ears against my cheek.

friends

☆ Having Renee as a friend all of these years. Who knew that a dance article about romantic relationships would lead me to find one of the best friendship relationships of my life? And seeing this beautiful friend of mine cherish moments with her beautiful little daughter made me smile so deeply.

☆ Spending an afternoon with Renee and her little baby girl- reminding me to focus on the little things. The simple things. Because they always end up being the most beautiful things.

value-of-a-moment

☆ Mom, you knew how to focus on the simple things. I wonder how you took care of us and raised us all by yourself. Was I ever laying on your chest the way Renee’s baby was laying on her mother? I imagine you didn’t get to spend enough time with us- as much as you wanted. I never got to tell you that I understand. That you were doing so much for us, I don’t even know how you managed that. I wonder if you ever got a chance to lay on your mother’s chest, as a young child?. Little baby Laila. I would have liked to see that. My mom being protected, loved, rocked and nurtured the way she deserved. Time went by too fast. Your time with your mom, my time with you. If I could have been given any of those moments back, I would have cherished them more fully.
Thank you for being my mother.

Thank you to all the mothers out there who give so much to their kids- from carrying their child in their bellies, to giving birth, to raising their kids so selflessly, to all the sacrifices they make each and every day for days and years on end. And thank you for sprinkling that little touch of motherly magic on us that only a mother can do. Nothing compares to you.

Write On!- Gratitude Journal- Day 3

Gratitude Journal- Day 3- October 12th, 2016.

beautiful-journal-pages
☆ Waking up to a bunch of new followers on my writer’s blog! Thank you! This hasn’t happened in a long time as I haven’t been writing on it steadily. Buy this new feeling of support from strangers from all different areas has motivated me to delve back into it. Today is going to be a full of writing day for me because of you! 🙂

☆ Impromptu movie date with Wendy!  I don’t know what I thought of the movie – Paterson.  But I like how it completely refused to stick to any of the usual cultural stereotypes and sort of toyed with the audience in that sense, in an eye opening way. I love movies and theater and the arts- the way they all take me to another place for awhile. They allow me to explore someone else’s world even if for a short time. And I always come out of any of those shows looking at my world a little differently- more open and grateful.

In this case, it had me craving cupcakes, thinking that I should pick up a guitar again and excited about colours other than black and white (You’d have to have seen the movie to understand).  Also, the main character ‘randomly’ gets a new blank notebook from ‘a stranger’ to nudge him to start writing new poems again. I took it as a sign to dedicate some more time to writing today.  “Aha!” said the old man playfully, or knowingly, as he walked away.   Reminds me to be open to ‘random Aha’ moments in my own real life.

paterson-movie

☆ The deep and meaningful conversations I had recently with a couple of really supportive friends. Michelle, Renee, and Wendy- you guys are my therapists! 🙂  I love you so much for being there for me. Your belief in me, and allowing me the space to express and be heard means so much to me and makes such a big difference.

☆ The guy walking through the alley playing his harmonica in the middle of the day. I was so drawn to the music, wondering where it was coming from. And I look out my balcony and there he was, just like it was an every day occurrence. No big deal. Thanks for the music, sir.  Put a little skip in my step even while I was in my apartment.

☆ The pigeon walking so carefully, but confidently, along my balcony railing. I loved watching him, his purple tuft of feathers glimmering with an almost metallic sheen to it as his head turned a little catching the rays of the sun.  Pigeons, puppies, and authentic smiles seem to bring me into the present moment a lot recently. I can’t help but to stop, stare and feel, rather than think and worry, when I am in their presence.

trust

☆ The guy looking for empty bottles and cans in the alley the other night.  He moved aside for me, to give me more space to drive through the alley and he smiled. And then I stopped, unlocked the passenger door of my car, which he was closest to. As I was reaching over to open the door, he opened it instead. I trusted him. He trusted me. I gave him the bottle I had in my car. And he thanked me and wished me a good night. The mutual trust and compassion was what touched me the most.

☆ Mom- what are we going to do today? Who should we meet? What are we going to say? Where are we going to go? I refuse to continue this journey without you, so I am counting on you to guide me from here on out. Thank you for being my Angel Mom. ♡

*Please note: the picture at the very top of the page is not my own and is definitely not my own journal. I found it on the internet and thought it was absolutely beautiful and so fitting for this post and for many of my own ways of thinking. Thank you to whoever is the original owner and designer of it. It is inspiring me to think of ways I can create and design my own journal pages as well now. So much for my no more paper goal! 🙂 When the muse calls, you gotta just go with it.