David, thanks, what is it about these gratitude posts you like, specifically? How and why do they impact you? I think that would be the crust behind your complimentary statement.

Bottom line, everything is a matter of perception, right? That’s what I’ve learned over the years. The more we focus on something, the more we experience it, regardless of what it is.

Yes, having gratitude and maintaining it has an incredible “vibrational” feeling around it. When I am genuinely feeling grateful, it’s a fabulous feeling and I experience a higher state of mind and energy. I feel lighter, happier and even tearful (joyful tears). I feel connected with the Divine Source.

Yes, the contest did go well last weekend – I won again and I now go on to the finals on the 18th of October!

But there’s always going to be something someone else has that I don’t. Always. And I think the grass always looks greener. Gratitude for me is about acceptance, compassion, honor – of myself, my life, what I have, even an acknowledgement of what I don’t have. Looking at life in terms of what I have and being grateful, has an entirely different ‘vibrational’ feel to it if I’m listening carefully. I can feel it physically, which translates emotionally. I feel I am doing myself a disservice by not honoring all I’ve gone through in my life to get to where I am today by looking at things in terms of what I don’t have.

I have so many things in my life now I am grateful for and reconnecting with you Stephen, and Patti back at our 35th high school reunion in 2001, are just a couple of them. It’s so nice to find a community of like-minded people.

Hope your contest went well.

Lance – where’s your blog?

You can be sappy and grateful all you want! The more, the better because it recycles good energy through you and others you share them with. Thanks for passing on to me your good energy this morning. It felt great to receive it, especially because in just a few minutes, I’m leaving to participate in the humorous speech contest!

I’m excited and thankful to have new people like yourself participating and sharing themselves with the rest of us. I’m also thankful that the community here continues to grow with like-minded people.

Kudos to you for “re-discovering” yourself. That’s incredibly empowering because what you’ve done was to make a huge shift in your thinking and now you’re taking better care of yourself, connecting with those who matter and moving forward. What’s interesting (and you might be surprised) is that while you’re transforming yourself, you open up a world of incredible possibilities that you never before imagined would or could happen before. There’s no telling what those scenarios would look like but trust me, they’ll be astounding and life-changing.

All we need to do is just believe and trust. I see that you’re already doing that!

I agree about the value of Toastmasters for anyone – regardless of whether they are professional speakers or not. The amazing thing about it is that every single person knows what you’re going through when you’re up there speaking because they’ve been there themselves! That brings on extraordinary compassion, support and comradeship. It’s unlike any other group I’ve belonged to.

I was lucky to find the club I’m in because they hold themselves to high standards and genuinely want one another to succeed.

Thanks for sharing your gratitude bits – I love it when other people do that because I find theirs inspiring too. I just checked out your blog and was surprised I hadn’t known about it until now. I just became your new subscriber – I like your writing style! Thanks for stopping in.

And…to the topic of the day – gratitude. Oh, we have so much to be grateful for! Thanks for sharing some of your highs for the week. It’s inspiring to hear! For me, I’m grateful for a new friendship that developed this week. Out of the blue, just a real strong connection. And, I’m also thankful for a very good week at work. After some planned updates I did this past weekend, I was prepared for the worst. And it all turned out very good! It’s good to be reminded of that we have so much to be thankful for. Have a great weekend!

In addition to being thankful to you Stephen for the interview and all the wonderful comments, I’ve been spotlighted elsewhere and I found a long lost friend last night who just joined Facebook. She’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had and I haven’t talked to her in years. I felt so wonderful after seeing her there that I screamed with joy.

The best thing you can do to help is to continue what you’re doing and just keep letting that little child out. It inspires me to do the same.

Good luck at the competition (as if yoiu need it.)