Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello friends -

This picture here I took this past week on my first Felucca ride on the Nile (across the street from where I am still living). Now that the temperature has dropped, it is absolutely beautiful around sunset and actually chilly - so much nicer to take a sailboat ride.

The meditation on 11/11 at the pyramids was beautiful and you can see some of the pictures here on my blog. It's hard to really write about it yet, but I hope to share it with many of you in person when I am back in the states in Dec/Jan. If you are in the Boston/Cape Cod area, I will be in town from Dec 21-30, so please email me if you are interested in a healing session of any kind.

Even though it's still sunny and in the 70's here in Egypt I am aware that Thanksgiving is upon us. And so, here come some reflections on that holiday.

Gratitude is everything. How often do we hear this? and yet how often do we truly say thank you? And how often do we remember to say thank you, regardless of whether we are having a "good" or "bad" experience?

My time in Egypt has definitely showed me that true gratitude is accepting what is, exactly as it is. Every time I wish something was different, I suffer. It's been a great Master level course the last few months on "Alicia, do you really accept what is?" or are you just spewing wisdom that you read in an Eckhart Tolle book or heard on Oprah?

It's easy to be thankful when things are going well. And thank God for that. Imagine, though if we could be thankful when things are going badly. Perhaps in this deep gratitude, a gratitude that recognizes to have life - breath, a body - no matter at what ability, a heart beat - is the greatest gift a being could have. What might we begin to expereince if we could let go of our judging mind that says, "this is bad" "This is good". How about: Thank you for what is. Thank you for my breath that I might expereince the world and serve others. Thank you for this opportunity to remember who I am. thank you for death. thank you for birth. thank you for death. thank you for birth.

When we all take time to practice this level of gratitude we shift our reality and awaken more and more love within our being and throughout our family, community, and world. So let us be who we are, exactly as we are, and be thankful for that in every moment even if it means you are in the middle of hectic and emotional holiday experiences that you feel you cannot control. Find compassion for yourself as you experience the many emotions the holidays can bring. and be thankful for EVERYTHING, for you are creating them that you may heal and experience more love.

I will be having a thanksgiving dinner with my fellow teachers here in Cairo - though we have yet to find a turkey . . And then I will head to Nuweiba - a coastal town in the Sinai desert on the Red Sea for three nights of rest, meditation, and desert bedioun life. I return there just a little over three years after my first visit there and I find myself reflecting on how much has changed - within me and in the world. And with this change comes more life, more love, more gratitude, more opportunities to experience everything without judgement.

More opportunities to let my breath serve me, as I serve those around me.

May your holiday be blessed with acceptance, compassion, and joy!
love love love
Alicia