Gratitude: Pi the Pumpkin Queen

This Week's Topic:

Gratitude: Three Cheers for Writing Buddies (be they furry or friendly)!

Regular readers of this blog know about Pi, my constant companion, my furry beast, my "get off your ass and walk me before you develop a clot" timer, my pestiest writing buddy. 

Pi the Pumpkin Queen

During this week of conscious gratitude, we thank you, dear readers, for supporting us throughout the years past, present, and future.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jeffe's Three Joys

 

This week at the SFF Seven, we're talking joy!

As in, three things that give us joy. As many of you know, I'm a big fan of making decisions based on what will yield the greatest happiness. Thus choosing the happy means a lot of things in my life bring me joy. But I'll try to keep it finite.

1. Shiny new books
   While Christmas shopping yesterday, I bought myself a present - this Fairy Atlas! It's technically a children's book, but it has a lot of cool stuff in it from around the world that I'd never seen, and I love the illustrations. Perfect for what I'm writing now! And it looks pretty on my desk.
   
   
2. Friends
   I'm so blessed in the community of my wonderful friends, many of whom check in on me daily and remind me of what's important. From friends who've been part of my life for years to people who entered my world in just this past year, I am rich in companionship of simply amazing hearts and minds.
   
   
3. My profession
   Like any career, being an author presents its trials and it can be easy to focus on the difficulties, but this kind of poste offers an opportunity to step back and truly appreciate that I am able to wed my passion, my avocation, with my vocation. Making my living as a writer is a tremendous privilege and the realization of lifetime goal.

I am so blessed. 

 

Gratitude is Riches

Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.

Doris Day

 

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Thankfulness and Gratitude

In this week of being consciously thankful and grateful, this quote by Henri Frederic Amiel reminds me that my thoughts and deeds are concentric circles creating ripples in the Universe. What flows out, flows back. Let kindness inform the intention and compassion shape the action.

Happy (Early) Thanksgiving

The Simplest and Most Profound Expression of Gratitude

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is our favorite quote of gratitude. Mine is very simple - and profound enough that it's shaped much of my life.

Why?

No, not why is it simple and profound, etc. The quote is exactly that:

Why?

I learned this from my favorite college professor, who was also my major adviser in Comparative Religious Studies. (He identified as a non-practicing Orthodox Jew, which - if you know much about Judaism - tells you pretty much everything you need to know about him.) He said that our tendency as human beings is to question misfortune. When we get sick, or a loved one dies, or some other terrible misfortune befalls us, we turn our eyes to the heavens and ask why?

 

Why me?

Why them?

Why did this have to happen?

But, when good fortune comes our way - when we succeed in our efforts, when the people we love are still there when the next day arrives, even when we continue to be healthy and able-bodied - we don't ask why. We don't beseech the heavens with questions like:

Why am I so lucky to be healthy?

Why do I have such a comfortable life?

Why do these wonderful people and animals love so much?

This came as a huge revelation to my 18-year old self, and I have to remind myself constantly to ask those questions. It's a profound exercise in gratitude to look at my life and question why I'm so very blessed.

 

Along with this comes questioning my success as an author. It's easy to focus on my failures, to bemoan why I don't get everything I set out to do. Even easier is to congratulate myself for success, as if it's entirely due to my own efforts, rather than serendipity. So, I'm giving particular thanks for these badges of great fortune. UNDER A WINTER SKY has done brilliantly this week, and I couldn't be more grateful.

In this case, I don't have to ask why, because I know it's because of all of you. Thank you. 

      

 

Gratitude

 I am grateful for the fact that you're all either still in a turkey coma, out shopping, or spending time with your families and therefore haven't noticed that I'm super tardy with my post today.

I'm grateful for second chances, whether real or perceived. There's nothing quite as energizing as feeling like there's still a chance for you and for a story you love.

I'm grateful for my editors, every last one. Every single editor has brought specific skills to the table and each one of those, no matter how hard it's sometimes been to hear that my story children might need braces to straighten those teeth, has made me a better, more skillful writer. Or possibly, it's exacerbated my worst tendencies to over think everything. Thin line.

I'm grateful for my critique partners and beta readers. Every single person who helps me get a story out of my head and on to paper challenges me to get better at what I do. I'm also eternally grateful to these people for not giving up on me even when I'd all but given up on myself.

Finally, I am grateful for this blog. It's kept me writing through just about everything. Memory glitches notwithstanding. It's forced me to keep thinking forward even while I bled envy all over the pages wishing some of the book covers on the bar had my name on them. They do now. See the second chances entry above.

I hope every single one of you has plenty of reasons for gratitude and may you have peaceful and bright holidays!

With Thanks and Gratitude, Dear Readers

In this week of Thanks and Giving, I'm grateful for:

• The unwavering support of my family. 
• The forthright critiques of my CP, Jenn Stark.
• The diligence and attention to detail of my editors Linda Ingmanson and Toni Lee.  
• The creativity of my cover artist and his team at Gene Mollica, LLC.
• The insight and persistence of my co-bloggers here at the SFF Seven.
• The dear readers of this blog and of my books.

Happy [early] Thanksgiving 

[for the US readers].

To Self, with Gratitude

Our topic here at the SFF Seven this week is "With Gratitude: Shout Out to someone who makes you a better author (peer, editor, reviewer, SO, pet, etc.)."

Mine is weird, I know - but it dovetails with what I've been talking about the last couple of days on my First Cup of Coffee podcast - and it's on my mind.

I don't mean to imply that there aren't a whole host of people out there deserving of a shout-out for all they've done for me. I'm truly wealthy in wonderful friends, family, and colleagues. In fact, I have the great fear we all suffer, that if I were to list them, I'd forget someone fatally important.

But I think it's also critically important to remember to have gratitude for our selves. I've been talking about the subconscious creative self - which is something every one of us has, whether we're actively engaged in an art or not. Our subconscious is the self without words or timelines, that connects to a realm our conscious brains cannot. Sometimes it's easier to think of the subconscious self like a beloved dog or cat. We have a loving and nurturing relationship with it, one that flows both directions. And, just like with our pets, it responds best to affection, not criticism.

Also, as with our pets, they don't always do what we think we want them to do - and the surprises give us the greatest delights.

So, I'm taking a moment today to express gratitude to my subconscious creative self, which has labored long and faithfully to feed me stories to write down. I'm truly grateful for all the blessings in my life.

Hope you all have blessings and reasons for gratitude also.

Gratitude

It's a warm Thanksgiving on Florida's west coast - a day of clouds looming and threats of thunder storms that never materialized. I have never in my life gotten to have Thanksgiving dinner while comfortably wearing shorts and sandals. So there's that to be grateful for. Not to mention that finally, my family is together again after we'd been strewn across the continent. And while we're still in monetary recovery after the vast awful that was Autolycus's final illness followed rapidly by Hatshepsut's near brush with the grim feline reaper, we ARE recovering. For that we are entirely grateful.

Part of being grateful is sharing the good fortune. The first place I like to send my support is a (now) local charity that will surprise exactly no one who knows me:

Big Cat Rescue

They are one of the largest accredited big cat sanctuaries in the world. They take in big cats from all over the US and, in some cases, the world. They advocate for the shift in legislation throughout the US to end the trade of big cats - either as 'pets', performers, or for fur harvest. They take amazing care of their animals and many of their cats live to unheard of ages because of it. You can also take tours - no - no petting or contact with the cats. They are a sanctuary and that means preserving the cats in as wild a state as possible within the confines of not being able to return them to the wild. When they rescue injured bobcats or panthers, they DO return the animals to the wild after they've been rehabilitated. Still. I can recommend the tour. There's nothing like hearing a cougar purr at you. Or Joseph lion roaring.

MayDay.us

Because politics. This group is a grassroots movement aimed at using small, public contributions to elect citizens to office. Term limits are a big ticket item for this group. They're working at city and state levels in order to build momentum for bigger races. Defeating a super PAC in a national election is the goal. It's also possible I'm channeling some $$ to specific candidates whose goals align with mine. I cannot legally take a flamethrower to the current Pennywise the Clown and minions inhabiting the halls of government, so this is the next best thing that won't end with me in prison.

Nature Conservancy

Because it's all about habitat. We know that wildlife requires land that humans haven't paved over. We get that if we want to go on breathing we need trees. And algae. And plankton. But who wants to dedicate a vast tract of their farm land to preserving a weird three spotted lizard? Or a rare venomous spider? The Nature Conservancy takes a realistic view of preserving land for wildlife. They buy it. Or trade tracts of critical habitat for other land that can then be used by humans. Their success stories are pretty good.

Bonus: Check out Charitywater.org

I think that especially when life is difficult - in the midst of loss - it's vital to take a moment daily to practice gratitude and to say thank you. So thank you. I am grateful you're here.