7 spoons

I live in gratitude. It didn’t just happen; it has been a long arduous process of trial and error. This morning, I reflected on a conversation I had yesterday with an older couple who have been married for over 60 years. And who are a great inspiration as individuals and as a married couple. They have a golden twinkle in their eyes when they look, speak and listen to one another. I am grateful to have this type of mentorship in my life. They are my brother-in-laws parents and I’ve known them since I’ve known Jeff.

We caught up on life and how everyone is and then some deeper conversation began when they shared with me that they have each completed and published their own books. I was honoured that they openly shared excerpts from their life. Stories of how they helped people come to Canada and give them a start by sponsoring them and their families. Or when these individuals or families arrived in Canada helping them to settle in with a place to live, or find them a job with financial means that offered them a running start in a brand new country, and enjoy the freedom to flourish their souls. I listened as I remembered back the story of how my parents came to Canada by being sponsored by my Uncle, and how he and his wife, my dear aunt gave them a home with their baby until they could venture out on their own.

There are infinite stories like this around the globe. People helping people! There were a few endings to the stories of the people being helped not necessarily expressing gratitude in the end for all that this couple did. And then their were the beautiful happy ending stories of those who they are still in touch with today that always remembers there helping hand.

It got me thinking, and I shared my view. That the way I view my life is that giving to someone is a gesture in the simplest way of being humble and vulnerable as a human being can be. It feeds the soul in a feelgood way that cannot be explained. And then I shared that when I reflect on my life in the present I realize how I am blessed with all the good that has been giving to me. I live in gratitude that by simple choice I have offered others over the years, ways of helping them to feelgood in their lives. And I in turn live in gratitude that others choose to offer feelgood moments to me that enrich my, playful and fulfilled life. It’s not that one had washes the other as in the old saying, it’s that if you wash someones hand, somehow your hands will receive their was in other ways. The big picture of this conversation is that doing for others is not about expecting things to be done for you, yet in fact it is stupid simple, doing for others because you choose to do for others. That what I loved about the stories that Leon and Shirley told me yesterday. They choose to help others, simple because they could.

As I think of the past two weeks during my birthday blitz, I have to say that every day was filled with moments of enriched loved by all those who honoured me with simple FB, tweets, emails, texts and the peeps that live in my everyday world, sharing something of themselves to make my 2013th birthday journey spectacular. Simple feelgood-insight from chapter #6 of the NEW book the feelgood life;

“Simply be grateful for everything, the good, the bad and the ugly! Oh, and don’t forget to have fun!”

The picture of the seven spoons represents for me that on my birthday I got to share my dessert with 6 people who mean the world to me. My husband, my kids and their boyfriends and my cousin. The 7 spoons are a reflection of my thoughts that we are never alone, there is always one or more spoons attached to a peep to share your day with.

The pictures throughout this post are a nibble of highlights from the past two weeks.

#grade3smiles & #feelgoodhugs,

Rose