Last night at a Thanksgiving dinner party, our hostess invited each of the seven of us gathered at the table to close the meal by sharing one thing that has happened during this past year for which we are most grateful. Her 30 something daughter scoffed and asked her mom why we had to ‘close the evening’ with a sharing. It’s just a dinner party, she said. Do we have to make it anything more?

I laughed. My daughters do the same thing when I  go around the dinner table and invite people to share.

And it didn’t matter. We shared and in our sharing, gratitude blossomed in each of our hearts. Thankfulness rained down upon us as we thought about the one and the many things that were remarkable about our year for which we are grateful.

This year has been filled with a multitude of gratitudes for me. When I began it, I was worried about leaving the shelter where I’d worked for almost six years. I loved working there and was worried I would regret my decision to leave. But I didn’t. With each passing day it became clearer and clearer that leaving was the healthiest and best thing I could have done for me.

I worried at the beginning of the year I wouldn’t find work, that no one would want to hire me. And then I got really busy and discovered how strong and healthy my reputation is in the community.

I worried that I wouldn’t find my creative core again. That I had squandered it over the years of being so engrossed in work.

I need not have worried.

Creativity, like love, never dies. It waits patiently, always beating the drum of memory while we’re busy looking everywhere else for what brings meaning to our lives.

On this Thanksgiving Day I am grateful for the blessings and gifts in my life. I am grateful for my beloved, my family, my friends, the people I come in contact with.

And I am grateful for the lessons I have learned that have reminded me to open my heart to Love in everything I do. To breathe deeply and to remember with every breath the Love that connects us, you and me. One and all.

Last night at the dinner table I shared how I am grateful for every moment of my life and most of all, I am grateful for Love. I am grateful for being inspired by the one I love to write a poem a day of love. To take time every morning to spend a few moments creating an act of love to share, from my heart to his. In that sharing my sense of Love has deepened and my knowing of Love has grown.

I am blessed.

I am grateful.

I am surrounded by Love. Immersed in it. Living in it with every breath I take.

I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Canadians and to all, I am grateful for your light upon my path.

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Yesterday, Alexis, my eldest daughter called me excitedly to ask me to go and check my FB page. “We’ve put up the Project True Pledge video,” she told me. As she listened in on the phone I watched it and when it was finished told her how good it is. “I wrote it,” she said. “It’s excellent,” I replied. And it is. Heartfelt. Inspiring. Connecting. “I had to work the day they were filming it,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter. I’ve still taken the pledge.”

I will Love my body.

I will respect my body.

I will listen to my body.

You can take the pledge HERE.

And vote to support Project True at the AVIVA Community fund HERE.