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Our 2026 Program Calendar is now available. This year marks another important milestone in our history as we launch new programming, products, and more in celebration of Br. David’s 100th birthday.
What comes to mind for me is my daughter’s support group of friends and her sponsor. We are all going out to dinner
after her 2 year medallion presentation next week and I look forward to meeting some that I have not met yet. 💕
Hopefully this huge weather system won’t mess my plans to fly south next Tuesday afternoon!
Yes, fingers crossed, Robin Ann.
There have been so many people who have touched my life
in one way or another.
Each one
has left a mark on my heart,
whether they know it or not.
Each one has threaded and stitched a place in me
that was not touched before . . .
all touch is unique.
There are those who have been so kind to me
that they have brought me to tears,
while others have been intentionally cruel and hurtful . . .
some have been both.
To all of them
I owe a debt of gratitude
I have learned from each and every one of them
(and you)
and will continue to do so
for as long as am open to growing and evolving.
Something shining and beautiful
heals me,
and I only relive the pain
when I allow myself to go back into the darkness,
which I do sometimes,
if for no other reason
than to glory in my salvation
when I wake up again.
I share my gratitude today
with you,
here,
because I am alone in this room . . .
even the cats have abandoned me,
and you are my captive audience . . .
I love your honesty,
your vulnerability,
your willingness to speak from your hearts
and that means the world to me. ♥
Loving kindness to you Sparrow.
I feel your loving kindness to me too,
dear Michele
with love . . . ♥
Namaste, Sparrow 🙏🏼
The Divine in me,
dear SunnyPatti,
bows to the Divine in you as well . . . . ♥
Thank you, Sparrow, for being exactly who you as you share here each day. I admire your willingness to share your concerns, your joys, and your life experiences. I am very grateful for you.
I come here to this place
because you too,
are willing to share yourself . . .
the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’
with all the honesty in your heart.
I too,
am grateful for you. ♥
The vulnerability, honesty and sounds from the heart is what draws me everyday, twice. Thank you for mentioning this, dear Sparrow.
I too,
come here twice a day,
dear Joseph . . .
you fill my heart
like everyday interactions
usually don’t.
I am grateful for you,
and for your beautiful insights
with love . . . ♥
I’m grateful for my sister. She’s going through a business meltdown and is teary and distraught. It gives me an opportunity to help her as she has so often helped me.
I am grateful for my Mom and all that I can learn from her and myself as I see her going downhill a bit. She may pop back up, as she has done many times before. I will watch her and myself as life unfolds, and see where we go from here. I am writing this at 3:20 in the afternoon after spending the day with her. I will show my gratefulness with her by calling her and telling her I enjoyed spending time with her today and that I love her.
She will love that, Mary.🩷
I sit here and I find this a hard question because I don’t think I can limit my gratefulness. The question says WHO? I say you, and you and you. It’s endless and its not limited to other human beings. Everyone is my teacher. Some are still living. Others are not. Some I’ve only met through reading their books or listening to their TED talks. Some I only meet on news feeds and I have to be careful about standing in judgement. So I will just say that I will do my best to share my gratitude at every opportunity I am given today and begin by telling you all how grateful I am for you.
I am grateful for you Carol Ann and everyone on this wonderful site.
I too,
feel overwhelmed by the beings and things in my life
that I am grateful for,
dear Carol Ann;
all in different ways. ♥
I am very grateful for you, Carol Ann.
I am grateful for everyone who faces their own problems and works on ways to heal.
Amen
I am grateful for my Meals on Whees clients, for their lives, for their influence on me, for their gratitude, for others who serve in this program.
Well, I’m grateful for everyone in my life. Grateful for the friend’s and chosen families. Grateful for those that have left and grateful for those that are still around and have stuck with me.
I do try to keep these connections alive, but I could definitely do more. It’s easy to keep these relationships going when I’m feeling good and have the energy. But when I become overwhelmed and dragged down by life or work, it becomes more of a chore. Thank you for this reminder. I just sent a few texts to my closest people.
I too,
have trouble reaching out,
dear Charlie,
when I am not in a good space . . .
nothing wrong with that.
When I’m feeling better
I make an effort to ‘catch up’. ♥
Agreed Sparrow and Charlie. That is the nature of life.
I hear you, Charlie. It is hard to reach out when you are not feeling so good..
So true.
Such wisdom, dear Charlie. I appreciate you.
Charlie, I’m with you there. This reminds me of Tom Geiger’s response awhile back on how men need something to connect to others whether it’s: football, business ventures, poker… It reduces gossip but also easier to lose contact. There are times where we need the people we distanced in the first place. He also said that women just make plans and connect.
I’m grateful for my mother-in-law for our compatibility in many topics to talk about with each other. One thing I can do today for my gratitude is that I’m going to fill our conversations with more joy and positivity instead of stressful and tiring news discussions. Happy Wednesday, everyone! 🌸
Wise words, NGOC
My Ngoc, this reminds me of one of my female friends from high school in Lindsey many years ago. She told me that boys often look for a woman who shares many similarities to his own mother.
I am grateful for the workers who are out in the cold shoveling, picking up garbage, and cleaning off icy roads.
Yes indeed!
Me, too and to my mail man who always brings my garbage can back to the house if they come to get the garbage before he delivers my mail.
It’s not even his job . . .
what a sweet guy,
dear Carol Ann. ♥
That’s so nice.
Yram, this time of year for winter is like the dog days of summer for July into August.
🙂
First of all, Ngoc will be going to Vietnam to visit her side of the family on May 13th, 2026 for 4 weeks. She’ll be spending an extra week with her mom in California too which most likely puts her back in Minnesota with me around the 17th of June. I could easily use Ngoc as someone I’m grateful for, because she’s the one who understands me best, makes me feel comfortable, and aligns with my values, but that would be stating the obvious. It’s cheating too, because she and I already agreed upon that the purpose of our nightly self-esteem is to go beyond each other. With all that being said, I’m grateful for Paw Mu.
I needed this question today. It’s a wake up call. Lately, I’ve been moving to my system too much. Although it works well for me, it can make my branch too powerful that it could destroy harmony within the family. One branch becoming too powerful is never good including our own branch. We must take care of ourselves before serving others, but I’m at a point in my life where I feel I have enough mentally that I can put others before myself.
With that being said, Sean Coughlin, my middle school zen buddy who I’ve talked about before, and I are in the 3rd quarter of the Paw Mu zen system. Expecting nothing in return is a shared quarterly goal, because we desire too much praise and appreciation in return when fulfilling our responsibilities which all points to agendas. For me, it’s putting great stalk into doing the things I like which is why I play the piano better and with more enthusiasm when more money is involved. Looking beyond the surface is his other quarterly goal, because he believes that there’s more to people than appearance and doesn’t want to be exposed by different charms. Detaching from my ways is my other quarterly goal which so happens to come at a perfect timing.
Paw Mu has laid down the blueprint for me to develop relationships with my root people. I just have to trust her vision and see life beyond stats, buddy systems, business ventures, and endorcement deals. Trusting her blueprint reminds me that I have everything at my disposal which points back to yesterday’s question. Speaking of buddy systems, aligning myself to receive the style of care I prefer that makes me feel more comfortable explains why she said back in the day that I’m similar to LeBron James. That was a roast. In fact, at the time, she made it clear that was what she intended to do to make sure that I control my powerhungry tendencies.
My Loc, sounds like we’re going to have lots of things to talk about this. Let’s put aside my trip, help me think of what we’ll do for our sweet Valentine’s day! Love u! ♥
My Ngoc, we can go out to eat for lunch the day before at that Mexican place at Northtown mall for lunch. Valentines Day lands on a Saturday this year, and it’s my Menards piano day.
To awaken is to realize the infinite value of each moment of your own life as well as the life of other beings, then to continue to act accordingly.
To act accordingly means all people are “my” people all are “my” family and kids . Thank you for waking me up more and more everyday to be grateful for everything and everyone in life . Thank you universe for all these amazing people who help everyone one of us and thank for being here !
We are all family 🙂 Thank you, Antoinette!
Like that song ! We are family , I got all my sisters and me. Not sure how it goes but it made me want to dance !🕺🤣
Yes, love it, Sly and the Family Stone. So many good songs. Let’s dance!
Let’s Dance – David Bowie
Thank you for being here, Antoinette.
Thank you Carol Ann ! 💓
Today’s quote and question are just what I needed as I have been a bit self-centered as of late. I am surrounded by people I am grateful for. My neighbor’s, who are warm and friendly, and we easily lend one another a hand. The wise women in my life who are a bit older than me who are wonderful examples of living full lives. My many birth family members who respect and include me even though we have very different perspectives on life. Those who serve our community voluntarily, school board trustees, city council members, neighborhood organizers, etc. And last, but certainly not least, my life partner and husband. He makes my life hum! Yesterday I wrote a thank you note to a friend on the last card of some of my favorite stationary. I think today I will do another, and one a week after that. 🩷
Mary, Thank you cards are a wonderful idea.
😉
Mary Mantei, I totally resignate with you on family and this includes extended family members. This is an extension from my longer response from above.
Good job ! 👏 wonderful to thank people in our community! They go to work and help us ! Thank you for doing this !
You are welcome, Antoinette.🩷
I am grateful for my children, family-including pets, friends, co-workers, this site and all who participate, kindness of strangers, on and on.
I can share my gratitude with kindness and love.
I am grateful for my husband. He’s a kind-hearted, hardworking man who loves me like I deserve to be loved. I share gratitude with him daily. We tell each other how much we love each other, and there are the little things like one of us cooks and the other cleans, or just taking each other’s hand when we’re out walking the pups.
I’m grateful for those I’ve met because of yoga. The teachers I’ve worked with and learned from. The students I have been blessed to guide. I let them all know how grateful I am for them each time we’re together. I sat in on a prenatal yoga class last night to help with my studies, and the teacher shared some info with me afterwards that really helped a lot.
I’m grateful for the few friends that I have, the ones I can get into deep conversation with and talk about all of the things. Especially the women who are in the same life phase as me. It helps to talk about what we are experiencing in our aging bodies.
And I am grateful for each of you for your wisdom, vulnerability, advice, and the loving energy you bring to this community. Thank you for being here.
🙏🏼💜✨☮️🕉️
❤️
🙂 💜🕊️
My guess,
dear SunnyPatti,
is that you are a ray of sunshine
to everyone you meet. 🙂
That is my goal, Sparrow! I do my best to shine my light so that others can remember theirs and shine it, too 🌞
Sunny Patti, you brighten my outlook with your response, thank you. Regarding what you appreciate about all who come here, I humbly add inspiration. Which you gave me this morning.🩷
Thank you, Mary 🙂 I am inspired by our community as well. So grateful I found this space!