Every night before I go to sleep, I say my "prayers" (not imposing any belief system on others). But those words that I express are not requests, they are thanks for everything I have in my life. And, that list always includes how grateful I am for each day that my family and I are still here on this planet, safe and sound, it includes how grateful I am that there are so many people in the world trying hard to make it a better place in terms of peace and world conciousness, that there were no disasters that particular day that brought harm to others. I also always express tremendous gratitude for the lives I have been able to touch in a positive way and if I express and plea at all, it is for that to be multiplied to include those I have not been able to help more than I have. 

When I wake in the morning, I always take another moment to remind myself how lucky I am to sit up with my own muscles and place my feet upon the floor. I am grateful for both my feet as well as the floor and the roof above my head and that I can move my body to begin my day and do all of the things I physically and mentally need to do with my own control. I am grateful for my eyes that allow me to see what I am doing. Those are gifts that many do not have and yet we forget to be grateful for those things we take for granted everyday that others would give anything to have. There were times (many) in my life that those simple things could easily have been taken away from me, and I am thankful every day that they were not taken from me.

My goal in life is to make every day matter, because each day is a gift-literally, and we take those days in sum instead of in parts. But, it is the parts that equal that sum, so I feel a great importance in remembering to make each of those parts count being mindful of every word that comes out of my mouth and every expression that is created by my actions. The energy emitted from each of us creates the wave forms of the energy that gets spread around the world and is what makes the world a better place. Happiness starts with each of us with every moment of every day.

There have been many moments, days, weeks, months and even years when life was not so simple-and was not so "easy", where I felt a betrayal of my body, my mind, and my spirit. But, determination, patience and tenacity brought me to better days, and in those dark moments I tried to keep my mind strong and reminded myself that more could be taken away from me and I needed to be grateful that more things had not been taken away at that time.

However difficult things may be, they often can be much more difficult. To me, life is about how we navigate ourselves through life's obstacles, or, maybe they are lessons, that we need to pass. This is my personal view. Many of these lessons seem unfair, but that is not something that any of us have tools to accurately access. I think instead of focusing on that, we should focus on these obstacles and persevere and that strength reverberates back strength eventually because the energy we put out multiplies and flourishes.

So, today, try to be grateful for the "small" things that we take for granted. They are bigger than we know. To others those small things are as large as life. As hard as it is, try to be grateful that what you have been given to endure is not more than it is. Dig deep and find your strength to fight through the darkness, the light is around the coming corners.

I am speaking in the "I" becuase it is more natural, but, this post is an expression from both Boaz and myself. Boaz and I both want to also express a personal thanks to each of your individual emails as well. They have touched our hearts as each of you do each day we are able to have the opportunity to interact with you.

Thank YOU!!!! Happy Thanksgiving to each of you and your families.

Dr.M & B