The crack of a bat, returning hOMe and exploring...

These are a few things that we are grateful for and happen to be part of our past week. But before going into our unforgettable tour of Louisville Sluggers, a spa day at Be Happy Yoga & Salt Cave and exploring hearts and souls of like minded people through interesting conversations and a guided tour through The Mammoth Caves, I'd like to explore my favorite topic....gratitude.

Is gratitude something that comes naturally for you or is it something that requires some soul searching? Either way, what I do know about gratitude is when we are looking at our lives through a grateful lens, it changes everything. Every time.

Some spiritual practices take more effort than others for me. Gratitude is something that has fortunately come natural for me. There are so many things that I'm grateful for, here are a few:

• My sobriety, for without this I wouldn't have anything else.

• My health and those who help us maintain and improve it.*

• My family; my loving partner, our four adult kids, their partners, babies - both human and fur, all make for a full life that I treasure with every ounce of my being. These treasured relationships are what drive my 1st and 2nd items on this list.

• Our dear friends who many have become our extended family by choice.

• Therapy, that has allowed me to heal, explore and learn from life.

• Our hometown that we are both from. I love the beach culture and the life we live in Pacific Beach (a suburb of San Diego). It's simple, soulful and laid back.

• Yoga, that truly changed my life and specifically meeting Karina who took it from a practice to a way of life for me.

• All of the treasured memories with Maggie and other dogs from years gone by. The hope and joy of a future puppy next year. Yeah, stay tuned!

• Our ability to roam because Haley & Daphne are running our property management business while we're away and my ability to work my health & wellness business with doTERRA on the road.

• For all of the chapters in my life that has brought me to today. It has created who I am, little by little, layer by layer.

How do we find gratitude when we've rolled double ones in the game of life? A sponsor from years past used to suggest that I start with thanking my divine source for my body, bit by bit..... thank you for my head, my neck, my hands, arms, torso, legs, feet, etc. It returns us to our center and reminds us to be grateful for things that are often taken for granted.

I also enjoy the alphabet gratitude list... thank you for apple pies, boats, Casey, Daphne, elephants, falling apart (so I can reintegrate stronger), green flashes, Haley...... I, J, K, L, Matt, N, O, P, Q .... and ending with Zeina, It can be simple, deep or a mixture as I did above and is always fun to do. I hope this is helpful for you.

I believe we can always find gratitude even if it is simply that we are grateful for this low, because we will learn from it and can rebuild from here. There is always hope and that, is something to be grateful for.

This was one for the books, our week in Park City, Kentucky was a memorable one. Doug's birthday present came early this year by a couple of weeks, when we took a private tour of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory.

As we drove there, every time the GPS would say Louis-ville (with an audible 's' sound). we knew it wasn't pronounced this way and we would correct the lady speaking on google maps, we thought we were so smart. We would remark, it is Louie-ville (like the song, Louie Louie), with an added eye roll for flare.

It wasn't until we met Josh, our tour guide that we heard him say 'Lull-ville', (as in: the lull before the storm and it only had two syllables) that we knew maybe we really didn't know, ya' know?!

It was so different with his Kentucky or shall I say, Lull-ville accent, that I stopped him mid-sentence and said, 'I didn't catch that, could you repeat yourself, what was that called' and he said 'lull-ville' and I said, is that how you say 'Louie-ville' and he smiled and said, 'yes mam, it's lull-ville.' Who knew? Our friend Betty from Nashville knew, but not us.

The tour was amazing and we learned all kinds of fun facts about baseball, the factory and how it has evolved over the years. A few things that stuck with me is that Louisville sluggers were the only baseball bat company from the early days of baseball in the mid 1800's. They didn't have serious competition until well into the 1960's.

The company began by a German immigrant who really wanted to focus on making wooden furniture legs for tables and chairs. However, they also made some baseball bats, even though he wasn't very keen on the idea. He didn't see how you could make any money or have a future in this business of bat making.

In time, both the business grew and his son became involved, and then his son and in more time, his son and on the day we toured the factory, we learned after the fact that we met the 5th generation son of the family business. How rad is that?!

This was the most impressive part of the tour for me. First of all, that he was out on the production floor and when he saw us walk up he asked if we would like to see the computer generated lathe turn out a professional bat in 48 seconds. As we stood there watching, I asked why there was foam on the bottom, wondering if was to soften the sound. He replied, 'can you believe a $400k machine just let the bats drop down onto that hard surface, so we added foam to cushion the drop.' What do you find to be more impressive, that the heir to this fifth generation company was out on the production floor or that he didn't tell us who he was. For me, it was the latter.

Doug was most impressed by the bat vault. We were able to enter this highly secured area as part of our exclusive tour. There were over 3,000 bats, all catalogued, dating back to the 1800's. We were able to handle any bat we wanted, with gloves on of course. Some of our favorites were; Babe Ruth, Cal Ripkin Jr., Derrick Jeter, Ty Cobb, Tony Gwynn and Ted Williams. We also saw the silver slugger award for Juan Soto before it left the building. Mic drop.

Off the field and onto our mats, so to speak, although I had led Doug through our own flow several times as we travel along, it's not the same as getting lost in someone else's flow and not having to think about what's next. I was over the moon to have found a really unique and soulful yoga studio in Bowling Green, Kentucky called Be Happy Yoga Studio & Salt Cave.

It was beautifully designed, Angela gave us a warm and friendly greeting and tour. The class led by Francis, was just what we needed, mostly a slow flow type vibe. Then Doug enjoyed a Thai Stretch by the owner Susan and I soaked up a Swedish Massage by an in house massage therapist, Emily.

Lastly, we were given socks to put on and escorted into a salt cave that Susan and her husband Doug had created for their studio. It had six tons of Himalayan salt covering the interior of this room. Susan pointed out the fine grade of salt on the floor, making the walk in our sock covered feet to the zero gravity chairs delightful. She informed us that once we were situated and the time began, fine salt mist will be entering the room. We were given a pillow for our heads, she tipped us back into our chairs and then covered us up with a blanket. I felt so loved and nurtured.

What transpired over the 45 minutes of quiet time in the salt cave isn't easy for me to describe. I didn't fall asleep, I fell into a deep meditative state. Towards the end of our time in there, I came to and felt as though I had rested for a month. I felt so rejuvenated and restored. I wonder if this is how bears feel when they come out of hibernating? Fortunately it only took 45 minutes for us to experience a deep winter's nap.

We met a lady there named Pamela who takes a salt cave session 6 times a week. She was so lovely and exuded joy & peacefulness. The combination of the wonderful people and the amazing classes and services, I truly didn't want to leave. I joked with Susan that when she came in the next day, I might be curled up on their couch wanting another day with them! I hold a special place in my heart for this studio and the memories that we made here.

Meeting wonderful people didn't stop there. We came across so many wonderful people this week. First being my attempt to hit up a women's AA meeting at a local church that was a Disciples of Christ. That's the same denomination of the church I was raised in and that we raised our two daughters in, Torrey Pines Christian Church. When I walked into the office, to inquire about the meeting that turned out to be no longer, I began chatting with a delightful woman named Molly, who had two adorable dogs with her at work. Our conversation flowed and in time, I noticed Jeff, who turned out to be the co-minister with his wife, joining us in our conversation. Both of them were so down to earth and our conversation flowed effortlessly.

Turns out Jeff is a fellow old car nut and wanted to check out our car. We stood and told stories about our love of old cars with two fellow members. Then Jeff gave me a tour of their church. It had won awards for the design and I could see why, it was a mid century treat and the woodwork was stunning. They had a section outdoors for their morning sermons in the summertime that had a view of the neighboring forrest.

Back in our campground, we met another remarkable friend, she had advertised her upcoming bake sale on the door of our RV one day and when we came home to find her flier we made note to support her mission. She was a young woman named Jaelyn from our campground. Her car had broken down and she held a bake sale to raise money to fix it. Both her baking skills and entrepreneurial spirit was impressive. She was interesting to talk to, again an effortless chat. It is so inspirational for me to find young people who have wonderful social skills and gumption, that are a key ingredients for having a bright future. I'm grateful for the hope this brings me, for our youth is our future.

Our final exploration for this week was setting out to Mammoth Cave National Park, that was just around the corner from our campground, for a tour of domes and drippings. There were over 100 people in our 2 hour tour but it felt like 25 people, because this cave was aptly named. We descended down hundreds of stairs, ending up 250 feet below grade. It was a seemingly never ending tour and we only covered a small fraction of this cave that has over 400 miles of paths charted thus far!

I'm not claustrophobic per se, but I did joke about wanting to bring water and some snacks with us... just in case. As we began the trek, I successfully walked myself through any neurosis that might have been creeping in. It's not going to crumble in on us, it's been this way for eons. We are safe, this ranger has led countless tours.

Just about the time I felt my shoulders drop and I was really beginning to adjust to this new surrounding, the Dad in front of me began his rhetoric to his young son who was ahead of him. I'm guessing this was self soothing on the Dad's part, for the son seemed unflappable about the experience thus far.

'Don't worry, just take this step by step, don't think about how far down you are, just one step and then another, forget that we are hundred feet or so under by now, just keep moving, you'll be alright, one step and then another, nothing bad will happen, one more step, it won't collapse on us, one more.....'

'Shut up!' I wanted to yell aloud. Instead, I tried to undo his talking by humming to myself a happy tune and not focusing on what was 12" ahead of me. I imagined what my inner landscape looked like; peace, love and..... OH NO! Was that a med kit I see with a defibrillator? That's the worry de jour, what if I have a heart attack?! ... I hadn't even thought about that! I've upgraded my worry to the creme de la creme.... back to my breathing, back to being in the now with gratitude..... Thank you for my hands, for my feet and.... be sure to ditch the Dad next time we gather in a group setting and then line back up again. Fall back and regroup!

We did just that and needless to say, we not only survived our exploration it was really interesting and enjoyable. Just like countless people did before us.

Well, that's all for this chapter. We left Park City on November 20th and have been rocking and a rollin' in Nashville, Tennessee. But that's for our next entry....we still are living here for another week!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. We are grateful for our family, friends and followers.

May you find gratitude in your heart, even on the toughest of days.

And when you're having an amazing day, please be sure to share your joy! With love and blessings to you all, Shari & Doug

* I would like to share an offering from our Primary doctor who is a Natural Path, Dr. Moira Fitzpatrick. She is offering $50 off of your first visit in her new clinic

in Encinitas. Simply call: 760 704 8148 to schedule your appointment by November 30th to participate in this offer of thanksgiving. We are forever grateful for finding a better balance with our approach to our health. She truly puts the care back into health care.