Take a moment, right now as you’re reading this, to grab a pen and a piece of paper. Write down 5 things you’re grateful for today.

It could be you’re grateful for the sunshine. Or the rain. You could be grateful for your friends, your family, your beloved. You could be grateful for your job. You could be grateful that your boss isn’t bugging you with more work, or that you have an upcoming vacation. You could be grateful for your dog or cat. You could be grateful for the roof over your head.

What do we have if we don’t have gratitude? How could we connect with joy, with our drive and motivation, with our souls without it?

Gratitude is up for me today. Don’t even quite know why, except that I have had some experiences and achievements lately that are reminding me to acknowledge my gratitude. I’ve completed my Certified Professional Coach training. I think it didn’t occur to me how BIG this would feel. I’ve spent the better part of the last two years dedicated to this achievement, and now, here it is. So much has happened in my life; so much has changed (mostly for the better!)

I am grateful there was a Coach Training program near me. I am grateful that I had the courage to make the choice to go to this program. I am grateful for my instructors: their kindness, compassion, support and modeling of what masterful coaching is. I am so very grateful to my fellow classmates who have been with me on this extraordinary journey.

I am grateful to be finished with my schoolwork. I am extremely grateful to those clients who have been with me for over a year, who took the risk to begin coaching with me when I was still a “newbie”. I am grateful for my newer clients and for the clients who are on their way. I am grateful for my friends and family members who have supported (and worried for) me through this career change.

I am grateful to be living out loud my dream of being my own boss, doing what I love every day and doing something that matters in the world.

In a way, this blog post is turning into one great big THANK YOU note, but that’s OK.

Gratitude is about acknowledging where you’ve been and where you are now. It gives us permission to see our own accomplishments and who has been there with us all along. Most importantly, gratitude puts us in touch with our JOY. And joy reminds us to be who we truly are in the world, thus inspiring others to do the same.

So, write down 5 more things you’re grateful for. Tonight, before you go to bed, list 5 more. Do this every day and you may start to see something shift in your life – shift inside of you.

What are you grateful for right now?

I’ve planted my Spring Garden. This year, I may not get a summer garden, as the retaining wall between my house & my neighbors’ needs to be replaced. That means the location of my current garden will be unavailable to me come July.

That’s OK though. I can always plant in a container. In fact, I plan to put some tomato plants in a container here in the next couple of weeks. See, that’s one of the things I love about gardening: plants will grow pretty much regardless of what you do or don’t do. Once the soil is prepared and the seedlings planted, there isn’t a lot more for me to do.

Keep an eye on them to make sure they aren’t being “pestered” by bugs. Water (when there isn’t enough rain!) Pull a few weeds here and there so they don’t get crowded out. And then, harvest. Lovely little baby lettuce leaves, arugula and those tomatoes will make a nice salad.

Couldn’t my life be this way? Like a garden? No garden responds well to “over-doing”. If I water more than is necessary, the plants could drown. If I constantly handled the plants to make sure they were OK, the leaves would get bruised and the fruit could fall off prematurely. But I find myself “over-doing” my life sometimes.

Over-analyzing. Worrying too much. Building up big expectations, only to be disappointed at the outcome and myself. Living in the dreamworld of “what if’s” rather than with my feet solidly planted in the soil of the here and now.

My garden has incredible resiliency. And it doesn’t take a whole heck of a lot of worry or coddling or fear-driven thinking to grow. In fact, pretty much none. I noticed that one of my baby lettuces had been uprooted the other day. I paused for a moment thinking, “should I just toss it? It probably won’t survive.” But, I took the risk of putting it back into the ground. The next day, it looked as though it had never been uprooted: perky green leaves greeted me when I checked.

How many times have I given up on something – or on myself—when all I really needed was to get grounded again, to trust that my roots will nourish me? The garden takes very little worry – what it does require is trust. Trust in the power of Nature.

I make this commitment to myself: I trust that what I need will be there for me; that, like my garden, I can stay rooted in my sense of self and know that nourishment is available if I seek it. I trust that I will continue to grow.

Could your life be like a garden?