Thanksgiving is the holiday that marks the beginning of the Holiday Season. A time of reflection and being grateful. From antiquity masters have taught that we should stay anchored in an attitude that will extend our gratitude well into the coming year. Not an easy discipline to master for most of us.

I have developed a mindful practice that keeps me in an ever grateful attitude. It touches every area of my life. It doesn’t even require a written or mental list of the things I am thankful for each day, hour and minute.

I always remember I started with nothing. I had nothing to give but was given my first breath. Although it was taken in the Lane County Jail, I am thankful for it and every breath is a priceless gift.

For the past 60+ years I have had the opportunity to be more mindful than most. I have been in a jail, prison, or was homeless, or in some mental hospital. I have never known what family is. These are some things I am thankful for. I feel it a blessing I experience life as me. Not once do I get in a warm shower and have soap do I not feel thankful. With each shower I clean my mind also I wash my thoughts as one would a newborn babe. Only the positive, grateful, and uplifting are allowed to remain the rest is down the drain with the other dirt from my body.

I have never had much money, but I always invest what I am given in some way to lift others up. I have learned the easiest way to remain mindful of gratitude is always have very little. That keeps you ever mindful of all you receive because at that level one dollar is a blessing. I do not squander these gifts by not taking time to honor them each day. I never want to engender a sense of entitlement and become self-centered.

Blessed are the poor is a scientific fact. With the poor, the mentally ill, and those homeless you will find more ThanksGiving than in any home with family and Thanksgiving meal spread out before them.

The idea here is to use the principle of mindfulness I offer you. If you give enough to wonder how you will make it another day. That mindfulness will appear, that gap between heart and head will be filled with daily blessings in this mind-soul process of sacred continuum of blessings. This becoming mindfully aware of daily blessings takes us to a new level of thinking.

The last thing I do before I leave here is give back that first breath I was given in the Lane County Jail.

Peace & Light

Aubrey

Todays Cowboy Philosophy:

When you get to where you’re goin’, the first thing to do is take care of the horse you rode in on.