Drs. Deborah and Kenn Gordon are on their way home from a memorial that Dr. Kenn is officiating for the daughter of a dear friend of theirs in Denver. Dr. Deb asked if I would like to do the Happy Monday blog post this week. Of course, I said yes! I am delighted to have this opportunity to share with you all.
First, I want to recognize that I am writing this Happy Monday blog post from my desk which resides on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx peoples. I am very grateful to live and work on this beautiful land.
I also want to recognize that we had the International Day of Peace on Wednesday, September 21st. One of the key things to do to participate in this Day of Peace was to engage in a minute of silence at midday. I was sitting with a friend at a burrito place for lunch when my watch notification let me know it was noon. We both stopped talking, went within and sent the feeling of peace and love out from our hearts to the world. What a lovely experience that was, knowing that around the world at noon (so basically covering the whole day), peace was being radiated out by a multitude of people, helping to spread peace on the planet. One of my favourite quotes from Gandhi is: “There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.” I choose to be peaceful in my life.
Now, coincidentally it was also World Gratitude Day on September 21st, and a good reminder for us to focus on gratitude in our lives. Being active on social media, I was pleased to see that many people were expressing gratitude for their loved ones on Twitter, whether grateful for family or friends. Lots of gratitude quotes were being shared. I remember being a part of a Facebook group where you would share what you were grateful for, and other members would get to see what you posted which would help them focus on gratitude; such a wonderful reminder. Gratitude is a powerful spiritual practice; it feels good and helps to create more to be grateful for.
Dr. Deb has faithfully been completing a gratitude diary for many years (not sure how many, but I want to say at least 20!). I am more intermittent with my gratitude diary, but as I do affirmative prayer daily, gratitude is ever present as I focus on this in prayer. Having the reminder of World Gratitude Day, I focussed my attention on gratitude throughout my days and I found myself being grateful for many things.
One of the main things I was grateful for this week was time with family and friends. On Saturday, I had a lovely time with my daughter, Kizzy, Tracy (a member of our congregation) and her son Daniel. We were participating in an “Alice in Wonderland” adventure. Basically, all team members have an app, go to the starting point (Stuart Park by the Bear) and have to locate different characters from the book, perform challenges and games (some were quite hard) and make it all the way to the end.
It was so much fun to see all these people wandering around downtown Kelowna, standing in groups, looking at their phones and trying to solve clues. We were helped by a couple of other teams a few times when we got really stuck and couldn’t figure out the answer (what a blessing).
Rev. Melody with her daughter, Kizzy, and Tracy with her son Daniel.
Some of the costumes were amazing. Tracy and Daniel were Tweedledee and Tweedledum, I had a Mad Hatter hairband on, and my daughter Kizzy, has an Alice tattoo (her favourite book is Alice Through the Looking Glass). All-in-all, it took three hours to complete, and I was very glad to sit down and have a lovely lunch afterwards. A huge thank you to Tracy for organizing our team, watching the tutorials, and leading the way. This experience definitely made it into my gratitude diary.
Next time you see me, let me know something you are grateful for. I always love to hear about gratitude.
Blessings,
Melody
If you missed yesterday’s Soul Food Sunday service, titled KENYA: The heartbeat of Africa!, you can watch the replay and other past services on the CSLK YouTube channel.
MIND-FULL MOMENT
“Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.”
— Zig Ziglar
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