Author: Ki McGraw

There are so many blessings in my life, counting them and focusing on them daily helps me to stay grounded in gratitude. This is the most basic spiritual principle and practice. Recently I’ve come into another way to do it.

As I look around, I am aware of the temporary nature of my present circumstances. In addition to being grateful for many aspects of this impermanent situation, I am also increasingly aware of the many things I will not miss once this, too, has passed. During this time of waiting acceptance of our application for the right next place, I’ve been alternating from one method of counting my blessings, to the other.

How do you count blessings? Are you open to other ways? Ki to Happiness counts you and your loving eyes reading these words among the many blessings in my life.

After morning practice and yoga class, we set off with our son to look at a potential spot for relocation. We looked at it a month ago, and are reconsidering it since they dropped the price a bit. From the outside, it looks great!

Since we couldn’t get in until our tour on Monday morning, we took a little walk to check out the surroundings. Suddenly we found ourselves wandering in the wooded wetlands behind the neighborhood grocery. This hidden benefit inspired us all to explore as our outing became a family adventure.

When’s the last time you allowed yourself to wander? What adventures await you if you divert from your intended route? Ki to Happiness shares her surprise discovery to inspire your exploration.

With all the right self-care and grooming, my cats and I are happy anyway. Nothing has changed in our circumstances. Joy abounds and issues forth from the great Well of being.

It is irresistible. I won’t try to repress or diminish it. I proceed along my yoga path, marveling at the mystery, with my lips upturned, my nostrils wide open, and my eyes shining.

Underneath your circumstances, can you feel joy bubbling up? Can you allow its expression? Ki to Happiness expresses it here.

As we learned yesterday of another rejected application for relocation, our cats became alert and agitated. Following me from room to room like a shadow, I stopped to pet and give comfort. Soon, I grabbed the brush to groom away stress.

The other cats came to also receive grooming. I took it as a tip that I needed also to groom myself, with tender care and loving touch. Receiving guidance and acting upon it, I could rally to teach my class after conducting private sessions.

What guidance have you received on this full moon? How can you best act on it? Ki to Happiness keeps her grounding yoga practices, opens to intuition as she grooms herself for her future free from the stress of rejected applications.

We enter the fullness of the Capricorn moon. With it, lots of emotions are stirred. Processing all of the feelings may be facilitated with extra water, drinking, bathing, crying, and being near natural bodies of water.

Emotions carry energy that wants to move. Finding safe and creative outlets for that movement to occur will relieve the sense of pressure. In order to best use this energy, we must direct it consciously.

How are you feeling? What outlet will make good use of these feelings? Ki to Happiness flows toward the Ocean of Oneness.

In the summertime, practicing yoga in the heat facilitates our flexibility, and detoxification. In my previous studios on Kauai, Guam and Bali we enjoyed natural heat year round. Here in Seattle, we’re blessed with it for just these couple of months.

I prefer the approach of opening windows and turning fans to using air conditioning. I call this “my fan club”. Always room for more in my fan club, even as I encourage you to start your own.

Do you love the heat? Can you regulate your environment or yourself for comfort? Ki to Happiness sends you love from her fan club.

I had a small window of time yesterday during which I resumed editing my manuscript with my assistant. My initial efforts 30 years ago left out significant others in my story. Putting them in spices up the tale, and confuses my timeline.

It’s as if parallel universes collide when I introduce others into my narrative. We each effect one another greatly and throw kinks into an otherwise tidy and linear progression. The process of editing highlights this truth.

How have significant others effected your story? Can you keep your timeline tidy and linear? Ki to Happiness looks from one window of time into parallel universes.

In anticipation of our relocation we have been sorting through our lifetimes’ memorabilia. I stay current with my possessions by keeping what I value, gifting what someone else might, and recycling the rest with a keen desire to avoid adding to the already full landfills. During my years living on islands (in Canada, Hawaii, Guam and Bali) I adopted the philosophy that if each person were to be buried with their leftover stuff we’d all cut back on waste.

Witnessing my husband’s slow thorough process, I applaud. He is signaling to the Universe his willingness to let go of his attachments and move forward, sniffing out the trail of Divine Will along the way. Like me, he is sorting out his life, one scrap at a time.

How much of your stuff would you want to be buried with? Are you willing to let go of your attachments in time to sort out the best usage of your stuff that you don’t want to be buried with? Ki to Happiness sorts while embodying the old adage “All is well that ends well.”

We practice rituals of integrating body-mind -spirit with yoga. Early morning sets the day with rhythms we establish during the first 45 minutes of awakening. The quiet coolness of predawn is optimal, when most others are sleeping.

The more deeply ingrained through repetition, these ritualized practices are more readily available any time there is a spontaneous need. Like learning a foreign language, we study so we can communicate when the need arises. We become fluent with both ritual and spontaneous efforts.

When are you willing to habitually practice? What circumstances require spontaneous usage of your practices? Ki to Happiness gets up early with the birds to sing in the day and returns to her hearts song anytime there is need.

We watched a panel debate about some of the many issues presently plaguing the planet. At first one person spoke from his perspective, then another from what may have been considered the opposite perspective. I heard a third voice in me connecting their differences with a broader understanding.

I was not alone in the awareness of the continuum of nuance, variables and definitions through which the debate could be settled. Another panelist expressed an inclusive perspective, a totality from which issues can be creatively resolved with cooperation. This aligned with my knowledge that we live not in a black and white world, but one prismatic possibility.

How comfortable are you with nuance? Can you allow space in your belief system to consider variables and re-definitions? Ki to Happiness sees the rainbow and shades of grey in the Light.