Good morning.
I wake up this morning and I smile.
I see 24 brand new hours ahead of me.
What miracle will unfold today?
I breathe in and I fill my lungs with air.
I sense my body and my mind waking up with the freshness of a new day.
I breathe out,
Peace back into the world.
I vow to care for my body and my mind,
Nurturing my body with healthy food and walking and stretching.
I vow to be open,
Honest and caring in my thoughts,
My words and my deeds with all beings I encounter along my path today.
I vow to give fully of myself,
Whether a smile,
A compliment or the simple true gift of listening deeply.
I vow to cultivate gratitude in my heart and my mind,
To be grateful to all the teachers and mentors who have been there along my spiritual path.
I vow to build relationships of trust,
To model spiritual truth and to show the world and to share my gifts and wisdom openheartedly from my own successes and struggles.
I vow to be an instrument of love,
Understanding,
Respect and compassion.
I vow to cultivate patience and self-love.
I remind myself of the words of Viktor Frankl,
Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and understanding.
I remind myself of the words of Rumi,
A 12th century Sufi poet.
Beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
Socrates encourages me by saying the secret to change is to focus all of your energy,
Not on fighting the old,
But on building the new.
I vow to continue to build the new.
Be kind to yourself.
Breathe.
Smile.
Let go.
Be kind to yourself.
