Love Notes for Gratitude

Posted on November 11, 2025 by Catherine Cheng, MD

OH but I should wait until Thanksgiving to post this one, right? Oh well, I feel overwhelming gratitude today so I will post this today! The world is better when we express gratitude in real time, no??

What are you grateful for today? How have you already expressed it? How much better is your day, your life, when you do?

With abandon, my friends. Effuse it. Let’s go.

One year I wrote a thank you card a day. It was a centering experience. Maybe I can do it again in the New Year? God knows I have enough CARDS! 😀

2. Thank you for being you, sharing yourself with the rest of us, and not depriving us of the great joy and pleasure of knowing you.

3. Family Friends Teachers Colleagues Good Leaders Kind Strangers — Any human with a kind heart — Thank you all!

4. What is the silliest, most absurd thing that you are really grateful for? I have so many but pretty paper, OMG. Life would just not be as good without it!!

5. Holy COW, so much to be thankful for. And today I feel it especially for all the folks to trust me. What a big privilege and honor.

6. May all of your myriad acts of gratitude be reinforced so you stay motivated to commit them often and with great enthusiasm! More more more please! Thank you!

7. When someone opens up and shares something personal, we need to thank them for it. Because that is an act of bravery and trust, and needs to be acknowledged. Let’s pay attention, k?

8. I think it’s a great idea to always keep on hand paper and pen to write our gratitude down so it is documented and shared. This way it’s amplified and there is more of it in the world.

9. A quarter of this century is almost over! Holy cow! Thank our lucky stars that we are all still here, holding one another up! Let’s keep going, yes?

10. Do you have gratitude rituals? I don’t. But I think practices are more important and easier than rituals… When they are spontaneous and second nature–all the better!

11. I bet you made someone’s life better today and I am grateful for that because it made the world better and that is how we survive the shit show! Thank you!

12. How has gratitude (yours or others’) made your life better today? Wouldn’t it be even better if there were more of it getting tossed around?

Teehee, those came out fast. More where they came from–stay tuned. 🙂

Love Notes for Kindness

Posted on November 10, 2025 by Catherine Cheng, MD

Friend and I shared our stories of stress, struggle, and adversity today. We’d neither planned nor avoided it. The conversation flowed organically in connection and mutual understanding, shared empathy and a desire for each other’s well-being.
Friend reminded me that no matter how we look on the outside, we’re all going through our own things on the inside.
In college I walked to the subway looking apparently unhappy. As I approached a homeless woman on the sidewalk, she said, gesturing to herself and her panhandling spot, “Oh come on, whatever it is, it can’t be as bad as this.” I took it as a sign to be more aware of self and others and grateful for perspective.

So as we begin another work week, let’s see if we can dig a little deeper for that loving kindness, yes?

Every person has our struggles… Most don’t show on the surface, so others likely have no idea. May we take an extra breath before judging, eh?

2. Stick close to the kind people in your life! The best possible outcome is that they rub off on you and the world gets better and better for it! 😀

3. What’s your kindness gesture? I think mine is either hugging or blowing kisses… Or maybe profanity… Or some kind of face… Depends on the situation!

4. That small kindness you were shown just now. Did you notice? Did you acknowledge? Isn’t that just a great practice for connection?

5. Hey hi! Friendly reminder: Being kind definitely includes to yourself! I hope you have many who can keep reminding you – so you never forget!

6. Even people we disagree with and who vote differently from us are actually kind. We can reconcile all of these things – if we ourselves make the kind assumption.

7. What’s an act of big kindness that someone showed you that sticks in your memory? Powerful, no? This is power we all possess and can wield for good!

8. Kindness is love, duh. It’s not flashy, mushy, or headline newsworthy… Or is it? Don’t you feel better when you see stories about it? So let’s go out and love loudly!

9. I’d rather regret being too kind than not kind enough… Sometimes the latter still happens – but less and less. 🙂

10. I think kids are naturally kindn because the innate human trait that seeks connection has not been beaten out of them yet. Be childlike.

11. Food. Stickers. Pretty paper. Whis is how people show me kindness. Oh and quality time. How about you? Who knows this and shows up for you?

12. So many examples of genuine human kindness all over, friends! We can open our eyes and hearts to it all and follow with glorius (and unhinged) abandon!

Trying to keep a little lightness in these love notes from now on. 😉

Love Notes for Lightness

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Catherine Cheng, MD

It’s too easy to get sucked into anger, sadness, despair, and even hopelessness these days. So much conflict, assumption of malice, and utter disconnection, my goodness.
But in our quieter moments, we can find equanimity a bit more easily.
Play, humor, and lightness help us get there.
It’s okay to let ourselves laugh and poke fun. It doesn’t mean we don’t care, it doesn’t diminish the weight of the world’s problems.
It helps us cope.
Lightness liberates creativity and connection, which are key for solving the problems that distress us the most.
Let’s see what light I can call forth tonight, yes?

Assuming NO CONSEQUENCE, whose house would you drunkenly break into to swap bedroom furniture with, and what would you write on the ransom note?

2. On the nearest piece of paper, QUICK: Assign each of your friends a character from the Muppets, Sesame Street, The Simpsons, or South Park. Imagine you all go camping in winter.

3. What if there were a chain smoking, cocaine snorting, sexually deviant squirrel looking in your window every day? What story would it tell its friends about you?

4. I think I will try to cultivate a dance habit. Every day, at least one song. Whatever mood or playlist speaks or calls to me, so long as I move my body accordingly.

5. Rule #6: Don’t take yourself so damn seriously. — The Art of Possibility, B and RS Zander
We have serious work to do but we can be light in our approach.

6. Make sure you can always be made to laugh. It ensures you can still access your humanity. And it’s contagious so you can make people around you feel better. That’s good.

7. What do you call a dear with no eyes? No ideer. What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs? Still no ideer. –As told by my niece. I still laugh.

8. Sometimes we just need some serious absurdity to shake us out of a funk. What is the most preposterous combination of animals you could assemble at a fairy coronation?

9. The next time you walk down the street, try strutting like you’re on a runway. Why not? The world IS your runway. Own it! Let loose your awesome self.

10. When you get stuck, play. Step away from the serious grind and put it down, even for five minutes. It’s like pressing your mental reset. Try it!

11. Who is your comic relief spirit animal? Do you relate more to Tom or Jerry? Road Runner or Wiley Coyote? Mickey or Donald? May your inner cartoon idiot keep you humble and fun!

12. “Dolpins are assholes,” I’m told. I wonder what other cute animals are actually a total menace? Besides humans, that is. We are definitely not as cute as we think

Okay friends, this may be the least coherent, most nonsensical set of jar smiles I have ever written. Must get to bed. I can hardly wait to see what I come up with tomorrow!