Soul Connections: Finding Gratitude.

I am sitting in the most beautiful place here in Todos Santos listening to my kiddos playing in the pool, the waves crashing in the background, & I am completely filled with gratitude. From my head to my toes. 🙂

I woke up early to the sounds of nature which soothes my soul. My boys were fishing & my girls were sleeping, so I decided to write. What could be better than that? 🙂

When everyday life distractions & chaos are gone we are able to have so much clarity, & can truly see things for what they really are. The quiet, calm feeling that replenishes your soul. If only everyone could understand the importance of this concept we would all be so much healthier & be able to enjoy life so much more!

My coffee & I have been reflecting on all of the beautiful things in my life & all of the friendships that I have made over the years. 🙂 It has been an amazing journey for me, as I have had some pretty amazing friends that I have laughed with & cried with over the years.  This left me thinking about just that! 🙂

Have you ever been lucky enough to have that friendship that lifts you up & fills your soul? One that is challenging in the most incredible way? A friendship that you thrive from mentally & emotionally? I certainly hope so, as they are life-changing friendships.

This is how I feel about Kirsten Yuhl. I have talked to you all about her in my previous posts regarding a few books that we will be co-writing. She & I have been walking this journey of grief to gratitude for many years & she is an amazing role model & close friend to me.

You will be hearing a lot more from her on The Giggling Life Blog because she has so many important lessons to teach us about being grateful & being “present” in life. I am thrilled to have her writing for us today on the subject of gratitude.

The one thing that she does not realize, is how much I am grateful for her! Her strength, wisdom, & poise over the years truly guided me along my path. She is that friend that lifts me up, supports me, & encourages me on all of my endeavors. Kirsten is the one person whom gave this blog wings. It was inspired out of our conversation last August & look at where we are today.

I am so grateful for her & am so excited to share her writing with you all! I definitely owe this beautiful woman & am excited to be able to share her with you all today!

Here are some words of Kirsten’s journey on gratitude! Enjoy!

Make it an amazing week everyone!

Much love to you all!

Kristi 🙂

Soul Connections: Finding Gratitude

Hello Everyone! My name is Kirsten and I am honored to be guest posting for Kristi who is off replenishing her soul this week.

Kristi and I have been friends, well sisters really, for many years. Our lives were connected through the beautiful friendship of two young boys (her brother and my son); but, our friendship was forged by tragedy when we were suddenly thrust into walking side-by-side through their deaths.

Kristi’s tragedy fell first. I remember crying every day and wondering how she and her family could go on and then, a few months later, my son was killed. I reached out to Kristi. Somehow, I could feel her strength and knew that I could turn to her in my darkest hour. Our friendship began then.

In the past 11 years, we have shared our grief and our breakthroughs, our struggles and our visions; but, most importantly, we have shared our journeys as we have walked through the wreckage and tried to pick up the broken pieces of our lives.

Kristi’s journey has been a focused quest to survive loss, to find meaning and to reclaim light and life. On this journey she has found the key to having a joy-filled life: Gratitude. The practice of gratitude has been so life-altering for Kristi that it has become her mission to share it with others, and I have been privileged to have her as my mentor.

Kristi is the only person I know who authentically lives gratitude. She exudes gratitude because she practices gratitude without exception. Gratitude has become her natural response to every situation. Ah, she makes it look so easy. But, gratitude isn’t something that we naturally have. It is a daily, focused practice of thought and action, like having a healthy body. The more we practice gratitude, the more it becomes our natural response; and, the more that we are grateful, the more beauty we are able to see in the world and the more peace we are able to have in our lives.

I’ll admit, there are times when it is easy to fall into old habits of sulking or complaining about life; but, if I can find just one small thing to be grateful for, that usually leads me into a world of things to be grateful for and, before you know it, my perspective has been shifted and I feel renewed and re-energized. But, when I have a really tough day, I can always count on Kristi to share her wisdom. Even if we can’t talk directly, I can hear her laughing voice saying, “We’ll, we’re just going to have to figure this out” and I feel like I have my co-pilot right there.

Yes, as Kristi always says, “You’ve go this!” We’ve got this! There’s nothing like sharing the journey together.

Thanks so much for sharing!