I listened to a woman this week talk about a difficult experience she went through. Her daughter was doing some volunteer work in South America and a boulder came down from a mountainside and randomly hit her.

After the mother’s initial shock and horror at hearing very difficult news about her daughter, she was able to dig deep within herself and find some positive things to support herself. She realized that her daughter had lived an amazing life, even if she didn’t survive this situation. Making positive meaning out of her daughter’s life enabled this mother to cope with a very difficult situation with more centeredness and capability, which enabled a more positive result for her daughter.

Is there a way to visualize something positive from your adverse experience that you can build on? What if anything can you control in this situation? Can you look for the opportunity or positive side of the adversity? What story could you tell yourself that would enable you to get your power or meaning back? Are you focusing on the darkness within or the light at the end of the tunnel?

The light can support you, the darkness may not. It may be important to support yourself by telling yourself hopeful and positive stories.

By digging deep and asking yourself these questions you may be able to find threads of hopefulness and positivity that you can build on. These threads could support you to positively cope with the adversity, leading to more coping, and your ability to climb up and out of a problem.

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Will Stewart took the accompanying picture.

Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. Albert Einstein

Gratitude expands our ability to feel good and can even positively affect our health. So with this in mind, I wanted to write about being grateful for what nature provides.

If we look more deeply at how the earth supports us we can be pleasantly surprised.

I am grateful for the park near my house. The trees there help turn carbon dioxide into oxygen for us to breathe. I am grateful for the earth that holds me in place. I am grateful for the moisture in the clouds that falls down as rain and snow. We need this water to sustain us.

We need to teach people to go into their backyards, that real healing is all around us. Margi Flint

I am realizing the floors that my feet are on in my house are oak. The oak tree gave its life so I could have a nice floor to walk on. The wooden joints in the walls are also made from trees. The ceramic tiles in my kitchen are made of earth.

My car is made from metal, given to me via the earth. My wedding ring is metal and the diamond is from a Canadian mine. So many things around me have come from mother earth.

What are you grateful for that Mother Nature has provided?

I am wondering how I can properly express my gratitude.

How can I thank the trees, the clouds, and the earth for the gifts given?

When we treat the earth with respect reverence and wonder, we honor nature.

• Every time we recycle something we are honoring the earth.
• When we live minimally with a light footprint we honor the earth and its natural systems.
• When we walk, bike, or take public transit we have minimal impact on the environment.
• If we put solar panels on our homes we create energy and pollute the atmosphere less.

So thank you mother nature our hostess and home…

May we be grateful for all you have given…

May we walk lightly…

May we be healed and whole knowing all that we have to behold….

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