Attitude of Gratitude.

Things making me smile right now:

-This article on Ginnifer Goodwin's Aha! Moment regarding veganism. I love the Albus Dumbledore quote at the end: "It is our choices, Harry, that show us who we are far more than our abilities."

-The Republic of Tea's Red Tea African Rooibos Good Hope Vanilla

-Jesse is visiting this weekend!!!

-Going to Baltimore to see "In The Heights" on Saturday!

-The beautiful red and pink canvas of a lotus flower that my sister sent me for my birthday

-Tonight I am giving my VERY LAST PRESENTATION of grad school! Only 7 session of my one class and a final paper until freedom!

{Photo credit: ZEDZAP-Nick}

Best of '09: Day 16

Best Tea

My favorite tea of the year (other than Yogi Tea in peppermint, which is my standby) was Teavana's Ayurvedic White Chai. I haven't ever tasted anything like it. So yummy! Here is the description from the website:

"A chai that stands apart! This energizing tea contains spicy bursts of cinnamon, cloves and black and red pepper tempered with sweet coconut and delicate lemongrass. These complex flavors enhance the Ayurvedic properties of this rare white tea. "

A morning ritual.

"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!"

The alarm goes off in the morning and I smack, smack, smack my hand along the nightstand in the dark, groggy and desperate to make the shrill noise go away. When it stops, I usually lay in bed for another 5....no, 10...okay, let's be honest, at least 15 more minutes before getting up. I rush around like a crazy lady to shower, get myself together, scarf down breakfast, check email and get out the door.

I cheat myself out of those precious waking minutes by fighting with my brain about actually putting my feet on the floor and getting out of bed.

Inspired by Julia Cameron, lately I have been contemplating starting a morning ritual. She advocates starting the day with Morning Pages: three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing. She says it clears out the brain of things that worry, nag, and distract and leaves it prepared to do real writing or to simply face the day. Have any of you tried morning pages?

If I had a morning ritual, it would go something like this: Wake up. Slowly get out of bed. Make my bed and put away any clutter in my room from the day before.

Do a slow flow yoga practice, ending with some meditation. Make a mug of tea, preferably Yogi tea in green tea lemon ginger or green tea mint garden, Bentley's raspberry green tea or Republic of Tea's ginger peach. Sip it while writing my Morning Pages.

Take a hot shower using this yummy smelling shower gel. I'd get dressed in clothes I picked out the night before so I wouldn't have to rush to find something. Then I'd make a breakfast of hot oatmeal and fresh fruit and take my vitamins. I would read the early morning news to catch up on what happened while I was fast asleep. I would pack some clothes so I could hit the gym after work and then head off to start the day.

Do you have a morning ritual? What is it? If you don't, what would you want it to be? How could adding those things to your morning ritual change the rest of your day?

{Photo Credit: S.Britt}