What Are You Thankful For?

01 Jul 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Gratitude, How to Journal, Memoir, Thankful Tuesday Tags: ,

“Thank you is the best prayer that anyone can say…” – Alice Walker

It’s the only one I ever say.  Just before I turn the bedside lamp off at midnight every night, I write at least mom shopping drink food
5 things in my gratitude journal that I am grateful for.

Last Tuesday evening’s list lead with two items that are often repeated in my journal as well as out loud on any given day.

  1. Thank you for the strong healthy body and mind that are mine.
  2. Thank you for my mother’s continued excellent health.

I am thankful that at 65, I am healthy and strong as is my 81 year-old mother.  Once a week on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, I pick her up around 9 or 10 a.m., and we’re off.

My gift to her and, truth be told, to me is a day of doing whatever she wants to do, going wherever she wants to go.  I know for sure, that we will:

  1. Shop. The stores and malls may vary, but she is a consummate ‘Mallee’ who loves to go ‘saleing’.
  2. Eat & Drink.  We’ll stop for lunch and a beer or two at whatever restaurant striktaco tamale foodes her fancy.
    1. China Buffet for a Tsing Tao beer and  all you can eat, and boy can she eat.  At 5’2” and size 8 you’d never know.
    2. Jim ‘n’ Nicks for Taco Tuesdays’ fried catfish tacos and Modelo or Acapulco for Fajitas and Dos Equis.
  3. Shop some more – Birmingham has a plethora of large and small malls and then there are the vintage stores and Salvation Army stores, etc.
  4. Party. We invariable stop for a happy hour which includes bar food or appetizer and something good and wet.
    1. Bonefish grill is a favorite for Whiskey n Soda tall and an order or two of Bang-Bang Shrimp.
    2. Dodiyo’s for Wine or a Stella Artois and pizzette and hummus.
    3. Brio’s for a Peroni, bread and olive oil and shrimp cocktail.
  5. Shop.  We always stop at Publix grocery store up the block from her house for miscellaneous grocery items on the way home.  She buys a six pack and I a bottle of wine to take home.

We’ll unload our treasures from the car, turn on a rerun of some show we both like and sit and sip and chat a bit before I go home.

What are you Thankful for?

G is for Grace from Genuine Gratitude

08 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, Gratitude, Haiku times 2, Perle Champion Tags: , , ,

Day 7 of Blogging from A to Z.  Today’s letter is G
G is for Grace from Genuine Gratitude

abundance graces
the genuine gratitude
of all living things

amid energy’s
sea of beings blooming things
still mountains whisper

Of all the prayers and incantations ever uttered, the most powerful is aheartfelt thank-you.  Genuine gratitude for the abundance in your life, to whatever higher power you acknowledge, assures that more abundance will grace your life.

This is common belief that runs through many cultures and religions. 

  • Do not be anxious about anything, but in everyflower Chrysanthemum situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. – Paul in Philippians 4:6

Even the self-help gurus, past and present, figured it out, i.e.

  • Joseph Murphy’s The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – read the ‘thank-you’ technique.  “The thankful heart is always is always close t the creative forces of the universe, causing countless blessings to flow toward it by the law of reciprocal relationship, based on a cosmic law of action and reaction.”
  •  Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Secret’ – read the chapter on the Gratitude Rock.  “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”–Melody Beattie

© Perle Champion

Do you love leftovers? I do.

29 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging, Gratitude, Perle Champion, Recipe

Leftovers part 1. 
My brother, Rick’s, cheesy scalloped potato ham bake was one rich dish among all the other rich dishes, so I only had a few mouthfuls.  Easy to do because I know he and mom will insist I take some home for later.  We set an abundant table and there is always plenty to go home with each of us.

I love potatoes and took several generous scoops in a mason jar to add to my other leftover containers. Frititta 1

This morning I put a generous portion in my smallest well-oiled iron skillet, cutting the potatoes into smaller portions, I added diced bell peppers, spinach and let it all begin to brown on the stovetop.  Then I beat an egg with a dash of Worcestershire and some Sriracha (red pepper sauce), poured it over the potatoes, and put it into a 350 oven to finish (about 15 minutes).  Yum.

Leftovers part 2
Sometimes, as above, I want leftovers to be different than the original, but not when it comes to turkey and dressing.  The Friday after thanksgiving I love to duplicate the original.  I pull out a slightly larger iron skillet, butter it and carefully arrange the turkey and dressing with liberal dollops of gravy over them, followed by a portion the 3-cheese broccoli mushroom bake and some sweet potatoes prepared with onions and other spices – no sugar thank you. 

I’ll put this to reheat in the oven around 6 to be ready by 7 and enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner encore.

Replete, I’ll pour another glass of wine and settle down on the couch to read, write in my journal, listen to music or throw on an old movie – programming is barren on the wasteland tonight.

I’m grateful for things small and large. You?

28 Nov 2013 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging, Gratitude, Perle Champion, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day 2013. 

Seriously:
 I’m grateful for things small and large.  I’m especially grateful for those we often take for granted.  In our mad dash to get from here to there and back again, we oft forget the things we have that had we not, our lives would be so different.  

I can walk and talk and hear and see and feel and breathe and think and love and more.  When I look around and see those who are missing even one of these things in their lives, I am doubly grateful for my largess.

I say a quiet thank you for these not-so-simple things we take for granted on an almost daily basis, as I cannot imagine how different my life would be without any one of them.

thanksgiving 11-28-13

Grateful for it all.

An then of course: 
I’m grateful for  family, friends, good health, sunrise, hats, sunset, eyesight, fall’s trees and kicking leaves, good food, Cabernet, dark chocolate, cold dos Equis, music, warm fire, candles, rainy days, martinis, sunny days, art, books, corny movies, poetry, my cat Jazmine, working from home, parades, Obsession perfume, red lipstick, leggings, l’oreal, red nail polish, friend green tomatoes, shoes high and low, pizza, etc., etc., etc…

How about you?

Grateful for small things. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

27 Nov 2013 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging, Gratitude, Journaling, Perle Champion, Trees

This morning I am grateful for the trees that determinedly grow in spite of humanity’s pavements, roadways, pollution and harvesting. 

fall yellow leaves 6

Although my neighborhood is urban, there are so many trees, and this day I am doubly grateful for the change of seasons that lets me run childlike through all the golden leaves strewn along the sidewalk just kicking leaves.

yellow orange tree

Gratitude 11/26/13 What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

26 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging, Freelance Writing, Gratitude, Perle Champion

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all we have in our lives for which we are grateful.  I have so much, and I often reflect on my largess in my Blog.  

Thanks John Archibald for asking us what we’re grateful for yesterday on a FaceBook post.  His question gave me the idea for posting a gratitude theme on FaceBook and Twitter for the rest of the week.

leaves yellow dark path

Early Morning Walk

So although this Blogpost is fresh (I promised 1 new blogpost a day throughout November), I’ll be reposting some past Blogs of mine and others along with some and famous quotes, as my personal Homage to Thanksgiving.  I hope you do the same.

Today, I am grateful that I’m walking 5 miles again on a daily basis – yay.  It was a cold wet walk this morning, but I did it.  Hindsight is 20/20.  I wonder if I should have put up with the occasional swollen and achy knee, but no I had meniscus repair surgery and it’s been a long slow health; however,

I am Grateful that I had:

  • A health insurance policy that covered the entire surgery.
  • An excellent surgeon referred to me by a friend.
  • An employer that offered sick leave.
  • A friend to take me to Brookwood Hospital and drive me home.
  • A sturdy constitution that required no drug more potent than aspirin for pain.

I missed my morning ‘constitutional’.  There is nothing like walking at the break of day, before the cars’ traffic noise and pollution steal the freshness from the air.  I’m back and I am beyond grateful.

Mañana y’all.

Grateful NaNoWriMo is over for me & I’ve got a good first draft

25 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging, Gratitude, NaNoWriMo, Perle Champion

Finished NaNoWriMo yesterday – Wordcount 51,414/ NaBloPoMo continues (25 for 25) 

I am grateful that NaNoWriMo is over for me for this year, and I have accomplished my objective.  I’ve got a first draft with an ending that leaves room for a sequel.  As I do with any written thing I’m working on, I’ll be printing it out double spaced with wide margins and putting it on my favorite blue Lucite clipboard.  I’ll let it lie until after Thanksgiving when I can take a red pen to it a little more objectively.  I’ll probably email it to the UPS store for printing as it’s less expensive than using up my own printer ink. desk edit 2

As mentioned yesterday, I’m shifting gears to other projects, although I’ll continue the blog a day thru November 30.

John Archibald mentioned he’s working on a gratitude post the Thanksgiving Day which got me to remembering various blog posts and published essays of my own on that very topic.

I might do the same, but as Thanksgiving falls on throwback Thursday, I planned on reposting an essay on gratitude I originally published in 2009 on the now defunct PavoMag.  I’ll see what time permits.

Mañana y’all.

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