Thanksgiving

I went to a free meditation class on gratitude on Tuesday night.  This was my first time doing a meditation class.  I have been listening to meditation classes offered by Oprah and Deepak over the past couple months.  They have an app and offer 21 day meditation experiences focusing on various topics.  The most recent topic was about finding your inner peace.  I was really enjoying it.  Unfortunately, I didn't have Internet access for part of it and if you miss a certain amount of days they are lost.

The meditation class I attended was focusing on being grateful for the sun and your heart.  The sun continues to rise and set for us everyday and helps make this world go round.  It gives us the air we breath, the food we eat, the nature we see.  Our hearts continue to beat without us telling them to.  Bump our blood, bring us oxygen, get rid of toxins.  It was nice to take thirty minutes to be grateful for those two very simples things that we forget about so easily.  Not only that but I especially felt a deeper connection to the sun on this trip.  I appreciate it as it sets every night and realized I have been taking it for granted for the past 31 years of my life.  During the meditation and after I took the time to reflect how grateful I am for so many things in my life.  Yes, I have had tradegy but I have an amazing support system.  My parents are my rock.  I love my life.  I am so incredibly lucky in so many ways.  I have my health.  I have the opportunity to do a trip like this both financially and career wise.  I think anytime somebody dies you appreciate life more and don't 'sweat the small stuff' as much as you once did.

The instructor Shawna who is from Atlantic County, go figure, performed Reiki on all of us during the meditation.  Afterwards, we all picked a goddess card.  I am not familiar with goddess cards and have never seen them before.  My card was Aeracura, a Celtic Earth mother.  The card said, "Blossoming- You are getting started, so have patience with yourself and the process, and do not give up."  If that's not a sign, I honestly don't know what is.  I need to continue to remember that and breath, especially when dealing with the board of pharmacy and the license transfer process 😡

On Thanksgiving, I was able to volunteer for Mama's Kitchen delivering meals to patients with AIDS or cancer and their families living in San Diego.  The route I had was in the neighborhood of San Diego called Normal Heights.  I only had 9 people on my route and the whole process took about two hours but once I do the route more frequently I think it will go fairly quickly because everyone lived fairly close to one another.  The people were all super nice and grateful to have me there.  One woman said to me, "Enjoy Thanksgiving with your family."  I explained to her I didn't have family close by right and she said she didn't have anyone either.  I tried to help her find things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, like her dog, the sunshine, and her life.  I definitely feel a connection to those people, even after only one time, and want to continue seeing them.  One guy even gave me a can honey roasted peanuts as a gift.  It made me feel good to be able to give back even just a little bit before I went and stuffed my face with my new San Diego family Dana and Daniel at Daniel's sister house.  As usual, there was so much food and I am paying for it today.  I can't thank them enough for including me and making me feel like I was part of their family.  It was really nice, and although the past few years Thanksgiving traditions have changed in my life, spending it completely alone like some of the clients I met would have been pretty lonely.

It's suppose to rain all weekend in San Diego....nooooo!!  Tomorrow morning I am going to a beach clean-up in Imperial Beach and then I need to buckle down and start planning out my trip to Hawaii. On Sunday I leave my Air BnB in OB and head to Carlsbad which is about 30 minutes north of the city to stay with a family friend of my in-laws.  I heard Carlsbad is a cute town and there is definitely a lot of hiking to check-out up there.  I do think it's going to be too far from the city and also I have never met the girl Kelly I will be staying with.  Dana stay I am welcome to stay with them as log as I want.  Financially, staying for free with Dana or Kelly in Carlsbad is the best course of action until I head home for Christmas around December 15th...AROOOO WOOOO!!!!

Song of the Day

"Gratitude" Earth, Wind, and Fire.  I think I have explained this one pretty well.

"Daylight" Matt & Kim.  Today instead of shopping I for the second year in a row got behind the #optoutside campaign.  Get outdoors, forget the retailers.

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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/cteijelo/playlist/1uNEjK1mra1y0s3gAkTEZ4