Grateful For This New Experience

Hello Blog World! I greet you on this exciting day with sincerity and joy! Well, the whole reason for starting this blog is so that I could have a template on which I could answer the intense questions of Cafe Gratitude. I've been following the raw cafe's questions for awhile now and decided it's time to share my gratitude with the blog world, whether 1 person sees it, 768.5 people see it, or a koala sees it.

So, this first blog comes to you as a response, not to Cafe Gratitude but, to the Gratitude Cafe Tour team. Musician, Jason Mraz, and his team ask: What inspires you and what it is you love about your community? And tell us: How does Love express as You in the world?

Here is my response:

Oh, Gratitude Lovers!

You've asked some deep questions that can only be backed up with deep, abstracted answers. Sorry I could not find the short version, so the extended version will have to do for the time being. Enjoy!

Inspiration can take on multiple roles in it's purpose to inspire. Perhaps the most inspiring definition is "divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul of humankind." The mind is what really inspires. In life, we can witness a medical miracle, hear an uplifting melody, smell the captivating fragrance of a rose, and "touch" someone emotionally. It is apparent that these all inspire; however, we are just using our God-given senses. We must transmit and decode these experiences to find the hidden divinity of each. The mind has the power to process and pinpoint the inspiration that each of our senses find. It sifts out the anger, sadness, and failure to leave that shimmer of inspiration. The complex mechanisms of the mind and soul are where I derive inspiration from.

Love leaves behind the trials and tribulations of the past. It disregards discrimination of all shapes, sizes, colors, and matter. Love acknowledges the "homeless" man at the local intersection; the stray cat at your garbage can; the lonely yellow leaf amongst the green ones; the single bead of sweat rolling down your cheek with all of the sun's energy stored inside; the bright red core of the watermelon in the garden; and the solidarity provided by the depth of the night sky. Love finds admiration and joy in that wrong chord belting from the piano; the out of tune hum from the violin; the harmonious strum, strum, strum of the guitar; the devastating double fault in a tennis match; the finger's ache after a long day of bouldering; and the off-center eyes in your drawing. How does Love express as me in the world? In just this way. Love loves everything and has no boundaries.

My community is comfortable and familiar. Everywhere a familiar face with a curious soul. Looking around it's easy to tell the climbers from the basketball players, the yogaists from the hip hoppers, and the science majors from the music majors. I love that my community is small and inviting. Hidden between organically paved trails for hiking and rivers exisiting solely to sooth the soul with it's calm streaming water, my community is a great escape from the worries and stress of the city. Everyone willing to help and give back, from the food bank to the local co-op where their small selection of organic items is provided with a great force of love. I love my community!

Thanks for this wonderful first experience, Blog World!
~ T