Today I feel thankful and want to say, “Thank you Universe!”
Recently my daughter has been intrigued by the song Thank You by Alanis Morrisette. She asked me line by line what the lyrics meant Why India? What’s frailty?…
Thank you Universe
Thank You, by Alanis Morissette
How ’bout getting off these antibiotics
How ’bout stopping eating when I’m full up
How ’bout them transparent dangling carrots
How ’bout that ever elusive kudos
Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence
How ’bout me not blaming you for everything
How ’bout me enjoying the moment for once
How ’bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
How ’bout taking you upon your support
Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence
The moment I let go of it was the moment
I got more than I could handle
The moment I jumped off of it
Was the moment I touched down
How ’bout professing just how much you love me
How ’bout taking him up on a back-massage
How ’bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
How ’bout grieving it all one at a time
Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence
How ’bout no longer being masochistic
How ’bout remembering your divinity
How ’bout reflecting each-other in our last splendor
How ’bout not equating death with stopping
Thank you India
Thank you clarity
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you nothingness
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence
Thank you
For me, there never can be too many thank yous in the world and in relationships. They are so lovely to hear and even more lovely to pass along. I never want to hold them back.
Someone asked me this week if we need to say thank you for mundane chores that everyone does.
“Why not?!” I said, “These thank yous can be wonderful!”
My husband and I tell each other thank you constantly. Thank you for doing the laundry. Thank you for making dinner. Thanks for putting the chickens away. (No, we are not dorks.) This feels nice. I feel witnessed, and it makes me feel here.
Showing appreciation is one of the most beautiful ways to acknowledge someone. It gives him or her a robust feeling of love and caring. It makes people feel important.
I thank my body for functioning. I thank the trees for oxygen. I thank my brain for thinking and then for being quiet. I thank my kids for being cool. My clients for trusting me. The earth for supporting me. My friends for making me laugh. Spirit for guiding me. Constantly. Etc. Etc.
Today I want to especially thank the Universe.
Thank you universe!
I said an intention months ago that came true today. I believed it so readily in my heart, that things would work out, but I wasn’t sure if it was my American sense of entitlement, or my trust in love that made me so sure there would be a happy ending.
See A Special Thank You for the news!
Please share!
“I feel witnessed, and it makes me feel here.”
Although I believe in “giving without expecting anything in return”, a “thank you’ is so important.It makes one feel appreciated, not alone, not taken for granted.
You give me every day so much, you give me love, you give me advice, you give me ideas, smiles, support, chances, a listening ear, but most of all, you gave me something more precious as it can never be replaced:time. You took the time to do all that. Thank you Jodi <3
Nikky,
This is the most beautiful thank you I have every received. So thoughtful and well written straight from your heart! “You are welcome” Means you are more than worth every second. You re worth me spending 24-7 on you and I mean that with every fabric of my being!
Love,
Jodi
Jodi- Your daughter sounds super cute and very intelligent too!!! Her deep and mature sense of wonder is really something. What DOES thank you India mean? Where you able to answer her questions? I love that you and your husband thank each other and the kids for the little things. It’s the little things after all that matter in life. I’m grateful that you wrote about this because it makes me appreciate how my mom always thanks me for favors she asks or doesn’t ask me to do and it does make me feel acknowledged. Your entry has also inspired me to increase doing this for others without feeling that its excessive or unnecessary. On a separate note, I laughed aloud upon reading the line about your uncertainty that things would work out, and not being sure if it was your “American sense of entitlement” or your trust in love that made you so sure there would be a happy ending. = ) Your honest and candid writing about your thoughts and experiences is endearing. Anyway, i’m SO happy that Nikki’s story had a happy ending!!!! I appreciate your seemingly unending optimism and faith in a positive outcome!!!! Love ~Naila
Naila,
I think Thank you India, refers to that she went there to study in an ashram and got much out of it. Thanks so much for reposting your comment here, I’m so glad of your determination to let me know how grateful you are!
Love,
Jodi
Oh wow, that’s so interesting! (Thanking India based on her experience there). Sorry you had to go through the trouble of reading/replying to my post twice. When I saw that the link wasn’t working I didn’t think the comments had posted either. Thank you for the compliment though, I appreciate your positivity! Love, Naila
Of course, it was me who took it down. So I understanding. Talk soon! Love, Jodi
Ah, my favorite Alanis song – nice springboard for introspection like this. I have a practice, which I make a point of doing most especially when I’m preparing for some activity that I’m not relishing – that I call “gratitude meditation”. It just involves listing off as many things as I can think of that I’m grateful for. This simple practice can produce such a drastic shift in consciousness.
P.S.: It’s interactions like those that make parenting priceless. 🙂
Seth Mullins recently posted..Dreams and the Power of Belief
Seth, I love your practice of listing off what you are grateful for before doing something you don’t like to do. We so often see what we don’t want that it blinds us from what we have. Well said! Thanks for sharing!
“Thanks for putting the chickens away?” That made me laugh 🙂
You’re so right though. It takes very little to show conscious appreciation to those around us and it really makes a difference.
We have a little ritual at dinner time where we each take a moment to express 1-2 things we are thankful for. A year ago, my girls would be thankful for toys and ice-cream but now, they mention things like having healthy food on the table or the fact that we have so much love in our lives. Beautiful!
hi, I just wanted to say what a beautiful idea it is to list some gratitudes around meal times. I love that u include the kids and instead of just saying grace, leaving it open to name other things they might b grateful for. I don’t have kids yet but when I do, I’d love to do things like that with them = )
Kirri, and Naila,
This is a beautiful practice. Before eating is a wondering time to reflect on our abundance. Then we eat our food from a happy and grateful place. I think this helps us digest better. It is like eating when you feel guilty or sad. I think we digest those emotions too. Not good.
Even when eating alone, I try to center myself and think of gratitude for specific things and for general things!
Thanks,
Jodi
A beautiful post, Jodi. Thank you for all you do.
Tina Barbour recently posted..A way through anxiety: Accepting ourselves
Thanks for all you do! Seriously your generosity is overwhelming! You support so many through your honesty!
Love you Tina!
I completely agree that saying thank you for the small stuff is so important. I’ve also recently noticed how many of my kind and otherwise considerate friends and acquaintances don’t say please and thank you to restaurant serving staff and it’s shocking to me (and it would be so easy to remedy. Have people just forgotten?)
Can’t wait to hear your good news, Jodi. I’m sure it’s well-deserved. xo
Laura Zera recently posted..Share Your Fave Beach for a Chance to Win Tro-tros & Potholes
It seems like people have forgotten, and this may be a large reason for discontent in the world. I think it is commercialism. I have a theory (I put it in my book).
See http://healnowandforever.net/2012/08/02/thank-you-universe/ for the full post including the good news. I had to edit it for a couple of days, but then decided to keep both so I didn’t lose comments.Thanks, Laura!
“There never can be too many thank yous in the world and in relationships” … amen to that! Great post. Thank you!
PS. I just found one of your comments in my Spam folder, Jodi. I’ve restored it to its rightful place.
Thanks Solid,
We can shift our whole consciousness by being thankful! We have to do it more!
Love,
Jodi
Gratitude is a quality we can never have enough of – the more we are grateful, the more we have to be grateful about!
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..Learning Culinary Skills
Too true, Corrine, too true! It totally grows synergistically! Breed itself. Snowballs!
Being thankful not only is meaningful to the person you’re thanking but it also makes your heart grateful for what you’re thanking.
MJ,
I totally agree, thanking is a win win situation. I love win-win situations.
Love this post, Jodi, as well as the song. My kids always roll their eyes at each other when I get emotional and thank them for being so awesome and special, but I know it means a lot to them anyway. And I agree, thank-yous make all the difference in a marriage. I always took it for granted when my husband thanked me for cooking, even the simplest dinners (though I’ve always thanked him for the things he does, the father he is, too).
But then, working with couples in therapy, I was taught by mentors to prescribe caring behaviors, including saying Thank you. The couples would report back the following week with descriptions of how they’d felt cared for in their marriage. It really made a difference!
Your little girl sounds like such a wise,thoughtful, caring young person. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!
Lisa W. Rosenberg recently posted..Taking Time to Relish the Moment
Lisa,
It seems that we all want to be acknowledged and that may be one of the worst problems troubled marriages, when one or both don’t feel acknowledged of worthy in their partners eyes. I think acknowledgment is the key to healing. It is a reflection of self love through another!
Thanks for commenting!
Love,
Jodi
I love the practice of being thankful as we go through our day. Being thankful for everything, no matter what.
Galen Pearl recently posted..I Gave Up Childish Ways
Thanks Galen, I am sure you have a strong practice of this also!