On Monday, I spent much of the day in the hospital emergency room with Phil. Normally I would be a bit of a basket case, stressed, nervous, tightly wound. The emergency room is NOT my favorite place to be although our hospital here is very local, small and dang nice.

Anyhow, just as I was getting ready to drive to the ER, I posted on my FB page that I needed my friends to send white healing light to us. Amazingly, I was calm in the ER. I felt as if someone was lifting me up, keeping me company and making me feel safe and reassured. I have never felt this before in an emergency situation. I was embraced by an unimagined feeling of love and safety and comfort. I felt scooped in the palm of protection's hands.

Today when describing the feeling to the only person I have spoken to of this; she said, " Of course. It was all the healing energy and light and love sent by all your friends on FB. "

Wow, just wow.  I am not alone. I am loved. I am blessed. I will pass this lesson and love on and on....
On this Thanksgiving Eve, I am so very grateful for this knowledge, this surrounding feeling of love. Gratitude. Gracious gratitude.

Often, when I sit down during a quiet part of the evening, after a busy and bustling day; I doodle in a sketchbook. One of the things I find myself drawing a lot are self portraits. I've always thought they added insight into myself, a sort of self exploration, counseling session, that I could look back upon and see where I was on a particular date, a moment in time.

I have been adding color to this image and I'll do an update later but I drew this while thinking of all the lost children and families from Syria. Escaping their homes, leaving behind any semblance of normal, seeking freedom from bombing and repression, I feel their lost dreams. I feel lost for them. I feel powerless to assist them. I am heartbroken over such hatred I see in the world. As Thanksgiving approaches this week, I will be ten thousand times more grateful for the life I have and the world I was lucky enough to be born into. I will pray for peace. I will meditate on the tolerance the world needs and I will try to find in my prayers and meditation, a brief enlightenment, a guidance for the world, a bigger sense of compassion, a direction to help.

Do you know what has made me deliriously happy this week? It is having my oldest son, Michael home after a 10 year gap in seeing him and spending some time just hanging in the studio. 

Of course, Daisy was delighted to meet Michael!