I live in the space of thankfulness and I have been rewarded a million times over for it. I started out giving thanks for the small things and the more thankful I became the more my bounty increased. That’s because what you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life you create more of it. — Oprah Winfrey
I don’t consider myself a negative person. Sure I stress, complain and have even been known to whine on occasion. It can become easy to find fault with a colleague, friend, kid, partner, neighbor, even the government. So what if I “reframe” those thoughts and live in a state of thankfulness instead? Would my bounty increase? Could it possibly be that easy? By simply changing the way I view the world, focusing on gratefulness, would my bounty truly increase? I guess it can’t hurt to try, and let’s face it, Oprah has accumulated a pretty impressive bounty!
So here I go. I am grateful for wonderful parents whose love and support continues to yield infinite blessings, four amazing sisters—two that are my angels in heaven and two that are my best friends here on Earth. I am grateful for my friends who are my soul-sisters, my children who make my heart sing every time they laugh. I am grateful for plank pose and headstand and family near and far. I am thankful for nieces and nephews who as they age become my friends, for my fabulous neighbors, mentors old and new and a husband whom I fall in love with again every time he smiles. I give thanks for this beautiful magazine lovingly launched by its first owner and all of our readers, advertisers, distributors and editors. I feel blessed when my legs and arms run the race that my mind wants to quit. I’m grateful for my faith and the hard times it has seen me through. I am thankful for my wrinkles—yes—my wrinkles; those lines in my face that show I laughed more than I cried and questioned more than I accepted. I am overwhelmingly grateful for the blessing of having known and expressed love and laughter with so many who have left this world entirely too soon. I am grateful when I glimpse a hummingbird in my garden.
Yes, Oprah is onto a universal principle here. By focusing on being grateful for what I have and not focusing on an opportunity missed or an item lost, I have experienced even more wonderful blessings come my way. When you try living in a state of thankfulness, and I hope you do try it, you too may find yourself with a much greater “bounty” than you thought.
Malama pono… take care of yourself,
Kelly Martinsen, Publisher
