It’s been too long since I blogged.

Six weeks.

It’s been a hell of a six weeks. not outside, but inside. Outside, life has been about the same. Yes, I live in Beirut, Lebanon, but that all seems surprisingly normal. Mostly I teach at a private American school with the typical pressures of report cards, committed but complaining teachers, and kids who find education mostly boring and way behind the way their brains and all the technology they own works.

So as I go about my daily responsibilities and be in service the best I can, I ask all the same questions I have always asked: Is this really where I am supposed to be? Am I happy? Am I making the most of my life? How do I acknowledge the reality I see around me and yet hold a higher reality of Oneness and Wellness? Will I ever know what I want to be when I grow up?

Last night I went to my weekly meditation group, which is one of my favorite parts of my life and community here in Beirut and we ended by sitting in a circle and each sharing what we are grateful for. In hindsight it reminds me a little of my mom and when we used to sit around our kitchen table and she would make us all say one thing we were grateful for. Inside (down deep) I loved it, but I often acted like it was dumb or annoying because I thought that made me cool and like everyone else. Not unlike the 8th grade students I teach, I suppose.

but I digress.

let’s get back to gratitude. The meditation group.

In this circle of gratitude, there was so much love and peace and power and stillness.

In this circle of gratitude, I had no more questions. I was fully present. in Gratitude.

What did I say I was grateful for?

my breath. and each day I wake up still breathing on this dimension

my family – grandparents, parents, siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews

the Teachers and Teachings I have been blessed to experience in this lifetime

Derek and Linda and the sacred home of SQ and Ireland that I am on my way to right now

Sound – the sounds we make, the sounds we hear, the never ending sounds that heal. the gifts I have to share this sound. The silence that only sound can make.

What are you grateful for?