30 Days of Gratitude - Day 17 - Local Shop or Group

"Maybe it's a business that you just love to shop at. Maybe it's a place where the staff has such a pleasant way of making you feel welcome. Maybe it's a local organization that offers an important service or program. The people and places in your community that provide the products and services that you need and in a way that makes you feel good are worth some gratitude. We invite you to add a public thank you to one of these local treasures."

Music was missing from my life.  And it was missing for so long.  I don't stop to think about it often, but every time that I do, I say a prayer of thanks for its return.

The local group I am thankful for isn't a business, it doesn't provide a needed service or program within my community.  It is a group of people who like to make music.  The Ukulele Club of Winnipeg is such welcoming group.  Watch the invites, the offers to share instruments, the invites to out of town friends and family.  I don't know how this group has done it, there must have been some plan?  They manage to let everyone feel a part of a bigger whole within minutes of arriving.  They seek out ways to send an extra welcoming hello.  When the music starts, I am "home" with these people.  And I am grateful for this local group.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 7 - Music

"Listening, creating, moving to the rhythms. Music is a portal to our hearts' emotions - from joy to grief. It can be an avenue to the soul, a place of respite, an international language."

In two short years, I've found my way back to music.  It's a way to get to know people more deeply.  It's a way to meet people I wouldn't otherwise meet.  It keeps my mind sharp as I try to comprehend the "why" of a sound.  It has kept lost loved ones close to my heart.  It has joined me with the past. It is keeping me company into the future. It sooths the rough edges on a bad day, and emphasizes the triumphs of a good day.

I'm so thankful for that one "learn to play harmonica in one easy lesson" - and I'm so thankful for the person who started me in that direction.  It has made all the difference.

A Grateful December – Day 1 – Wild Card

Post potluck preparation, and elbow deep in ground beef, I considered how I was going to complete the Day Challenge of my December.  (Using www.30daysofgratitude.org.)  I’d already decided that if the day didn’t fit, I was just going to post something else.  My thoughts moved away from the original Day 1 plan – to honour the month past.  They moved into the honest grateful mode that has been groomed by my previous 30 day challenge.

Today I am grateful for the wild card of chance that brings people together.  Today, you see, along with two handsfull of others, I was invited to a big birthday party.  It is through chance that we twenty or so know one another.  In reflection of the first round of classes, I have encouraged others to this session – secretly holding back the fact I would like everyone to sit in this woman’s class.  Sure, we’ve all learned to play ukulele.  The secret, though, that I hold back is the way that you will feel after being in this woman’s class.  I am grateful for whatever it is that she has... and whatever it is that she shares, that builds the souls of those around her. 

I am also grateful for the new friendships that we are investigating, getting to know one another bit by bit.  No one in a hurry, probably no one with a whole lot of extra time.  Slowly but surely we are becoming a really neat group.

If I were building a timeline of life experiences for others, this would be the type of wild card I would deal – and I would watch the joy in their hearts grow as they let go to enjoy all that life can bring.

"30 Days of Gratitude" ~ Day 14 ~ Musical Moments

I am so thankful for music.  It can enhance great moments, it can sooth difficlt moments.  I am thankful for being able ot participate in music, by making it, by listening to it, by supporting it.  I am thankful for listening channels, radio stations, youtube and sharesies by friends. 

I can't imagine what life would be like without it.