Meg Evans

I was practicing mindfulness this evening while cleaning up after dinner. While I was standing at the kitchen sink, a negative thought wandered into my head, along the lines of “what’s the point of being mindful about a boring everyday chore.”

To deal with that, I started composing a mental list of reasons to be grateful. Obviously, having a good dinner was at the top of the list. The dishwasher deserved gratitude for making the chore much easier. I was standing on a comfortable mat in front of the sink. The house was warm and the kitchen well lit. Even something as simple as hot running water earned a place on the gratitude list, especially after we had two water outages last year (caused by a water main break and a tornado).

After I had brought into my conscious awareness all the little things in the moment for which I was grateful, I felt pretty good—so, I would say that the mindfulness practice was a success.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

This week I’ve felt like my energy is all tangled up in some sort of mental static, buzzing at me just below the threshold of conscious awareness. Probably the change of seasons has something to do with it, and maybe I need more sleep. Whatever it is, I keep reminding myself to slow down, just breathe, and be present in the moment. Patience heals many things.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

While I was doing my grocery shopping today, the woman behind me in the checkout line introduced herself, said that she went to the same gym with my husband and daughter a few years ago, and asked me to tell them that she said hello.

I thought at first that she must have an excellent memory for faces, recognizing me when I wasn’t a member of that gym. She couldn’t have seen me more than a few times. But then my husband pointed out that his Facebook photo includes me, so that probably was how she knew my face.

Anyway, however it might have happened, it was nice to get an unexpected cheerful greeting while I was just buying groceries, and it left me smiling.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I have good feelings about my New Year’s resolution of bringing more clarity into my life by focusing on little things in the moment. Part of the process is simply reminding myself that finding inspiration and direction will naturally happen when the time is right. There’s no need to plan tasks or compose to-do lists. Rather, awareness and presence, in themselves, create a welcoming space for life’s healing energy to fill.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Last week was so dark and gray that I ordered a sparkly sleeveless top from a catalog to cheer myself up. That was somewhat out of character for me, as I’m not usually an impulse shopper. It definitely left me feeling more cheerful when I put it on, though. I would say there’s no harm in it because we all need to buy new clothes sometime! And now that the days are getting longer, it’s starting to feel just a little bit like spring. Even though today started with icy drizzle and ended with snow, we’re not that far away.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Sometimes it can be hard to find energy when, like this week, it’s just one dark winter day after another. Still, there are many reasons to be grateful. Even the little things, like a flameless candle on my desk and a colorful lighted keyboard that my husband gave me for Christmas, add up to feeling well nurtured and cared for—when we take the time to notice them.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Sometimes on these long, dark winter nights, I get a feeling that can best be described as a longing to go home. It is just as likely to pop up when I am in my house, so it’s not about a specific physical place in the here and now. Maybe it has to do with a childhood home, or an ancestral home—it might even be a collective wish to get back on the mothership. I honestly don’t know.

When that happens, a good book always leaves me feeling more at home in the world. Being able to explore different places and times while discovering a wonderful assortment of new friends there, just by reading words on paper (or more often a screen, nowadays) always seemed magical to me.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Today I want to give a shout-out to all the bloggers who take part in positive groups such as Nurturing Thursday. Even though the posts often are short, and maybe they don’t get a lot of comments, we shouldn’t assume that they have no impact or that they go unappreciated. Sometimes our small, persistent efforts add more goodness to the world than we realize.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

My daughter, her husband, and his family went to Florida for a week’s vacation and just got back today. Meanwhile, my husband and I were taking care of her dogs while she was gone. They were mostly well behaved, except for running around in backyard mud, which wasn’t entirely their fault because it had been raining a lot; and of course, they would have needed bathing sometime during the week anyway.

We had a bit of sunshine here today, along with rising temperatures, which left me feeling cheerful. It won’t be long before the days are longer and we wake up to birds happily chirping.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I mentioned in a recent post that my husband had a new job. Last year he was in a bad situation because he’d been assigned to work on a failing project. So he looked around for job opportunities elsewhere, but didn’t find anything that looked like a good fit.

Then he got laid off when the project was shut down. That seemed like bad luck at the time, but it actually turned out better than if he had quit. He got severance pay, and a recruiter found him a good job in a week. Yay for labor shortages.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.