Grateful. Thankful. Blessed by Teresa Taylor

“…in the act of offering gratitude we actually become the source of all abundance, feeling the infinite love pouring through our hearts like sweet syrup, an inexhaustible warmth that floods the galaxies swirling behind our eyelids.” 

--from Great Fullness,   Br. David Steindl-Rast and Ken Wilber

Greetings to our friends and community,

I first came to gratitude as a practice through a class taught by the gifted teacher, Marilyn Grosboll. Many of you may remember her, and the beautiful contribution she made as she taught several adult education classes through SBCC for many years—a true treasure. I came to Marilyn’s class on growing through loss by “accident”. I thought I was showing up for a photography class. My recently deceased father’s camera strapped over my shoulder, I was going to learn about f stops and such.After my initial confusion passed, I was not in fact in a photography class, curious, I decided to stay. Marilyn exuded warmth and compassion, a healing balm at that time in my life. I had just landed in Santa Barbara and was in the process of creating “Plan X”. Plans A through W—experienced and completed. There was loss and a bit of lingering rubble left over between A and W. I was in the right place at the right time.I remember doing an inner eye roll, when Marilyn first gave the assignment of creating a journal where at the end of each day we were to write down three things for which we were grateful. I was young and in a hurry to get on with life, and I wasn’t feeling particularly grateful about much. So with great resistance in tow, I began to do the practice. Through the practice, a spaciousness around me was created in which blessings and miracles could occur. One of those miraculous blessings was the opportunity to steward Paradise Found. My Plan X had found me. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude.Seventeen years later, gratitude is no longer an exercise but a lens through which the world arises.Grateful. Thankful. Blessed.Teresa, spirit of Thule, Tucker, Huxley and all at Paradise Found

Be wildly, obsessively, precisely grateful

~Danielle De LaPorte

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