hope & gratitude

This is my new profile picture on Facebook. I love it. It represents something very special to me. The summer I lost my son Arlo there was an enormous hatching of monarch butterflies - I saw them everywhere. One of the many symbolic meanings of butterflies is life after death or rebirth, so for me monarch butterflies came to represent the rebirth of my little Arlo. 

Now, you take that personal meaning and add my name to it - wow profound stuff. Hope means a lot to me. As my name I think of it as a personal journey and what I'm meant to bring to those who come into my life. I don't know that I succeed, but my personal journey has definitely been one about discovering hope in my life.

I'm grateful for those lessons about hope. I have it in abundance now. I'm filled with it especially in regards to my recovery from addiction. I have faith and hope that I will recover to find physical, spiritual and mental health. I will continue to learn to live in the beautiful vessel the Universe has seen fit to gift me with. I have hope that the path I am now on will bring me future greater physical health and I will be able to once again do a lot of the things I would like to (like backpacking along the Appalachian Trail). 

I believe that one of the major tools to finding hope in my life is gratitude. When I find gratitude in my heart than that just showers me with more hope for things to come. And I'm blessed to have many gratitudes in my life, my family, my friends, the Earth, my Higher Power, the 12 Steps, AA and OA literature, my pets, myself, my experience, strength and hope, and all of you taking the time out of your busy (or maybe not so busy) lives to read this blog.

What blessings the Universe has showered me with! What blessings and hopes has the Universal Higher Power blessed you with today? I'd love to hear about them. Feel free to share them here or on my Facebook page. Let's fill the world with just a little more gratitude. 

Blessings to you all.