{"id":243,"date":"2009-10-19T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-19T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.tarogold.com\/2006\/12\/12\/appreciation\/"},"modified":"2020-08-07T05:00:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T05:00:23","slug":"appreciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/appreciation\/","title":{"rendered":"Appreciation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fortunately I was able to take a few weeks off to share a family vacation with 16 members of my extended family in the Bahamas and Cayman Islands. Sitting on the peaceful, sun-drenched beaches listening to the ocean waves, some profound feelings of appreciation welled up within me. The people with whom we share our lives, I thought, greatly influence the direction, quality and value of our journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My journey has been adorned with the greatest treasures of all \u2013 treasures of the heart. I\u2019m deeply grateful to everyone who has helped me grow, learn, and become joyful. Throughout the world, past and present, I express gratitude from the core of my being. The list of those whom I\u2019d like to shower praise upon is too long to compile. #1 on the list, however, is easy. \u201cThe Best\u201d is my mother. She\u2019s always been there for me as unshakable and steadfast as a mountain, under any circumstance. She\u2019s been my best teacher, my best fan, my best influence, my best confidante. She continues to shine as a great example, a great inspiration, and a great lighthouse for my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"278\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/20061215-3-278x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/20061215-3-278x300.jpg 278w, https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/20061215-3.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During our vacation, my nephew Alex captured a candid photo of me in which my mom appears in the background. I especially enjoy this image because I did not realize she was standing behind me when he took the photo. It reflects the reality that throughout my life my mother has always been there, proudly sustaining and watching out for me even when I don\u2019t realize it. Thanks mom! Another favorite photo from our trip captured a magical experience I had swimming with wild stingrays in the Caribbean Sea \u2013 a life-changing experience. After playing with the stingrays, I kissed one good-bye, and my sense of appreciation and wonder for this life became heightened evermore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/20061215-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/20061215-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/20061215-1.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption>Jumping in (the dark spots are stingrays)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fortunately I was able to take a few weeks off to share a family vacation with 16 members of my extended family in the Bahamas and Cayman Islands. Sitting on the peaceful, sun-drenched beaches listening to the ocean waves, some profound feelings of appreciation welled up within me. The people with whom we share our &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tarogold.ig.dog\/tarogoldwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}