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As I pray about fires out west, flooding in Texas and Lousiana, and a hurricane brewing in the south Atlantic, it seems like a good time to focus on gratitude. Let’s not take any of the good we have for granted.

This is a newer, periodic, blog feature; I call it “grace notes.” It occasionally captures my jottings of incidental gratitude for sacramental moments in the shards of daily life. My hope is that this practice will make me (and you?) more aware of the constant flow of amazing good we are perpetually steeped in, which we are surrounded by all the time. It is here only asking to be noticed and amplified. See how all of life is poetry?

So now I am furthering my ongoing goal of appreciating such a continuous, overflowing abundance of random good. I’ve even taken photographs of some of them –mostly with my iPhone–as shown in this post. My list continues with:

• that all our children are healthy, safe, and well
• that God gives everyone everything they need–we are all watched over and cared for
• our bumper crop of peaches gave us many gallon’s worth, cut up in our freezer
• delicious summer meals at our picnic table
• white hydrangeas with tinges of maroon
• lovely eggs from a friend’s chickens that she hatched herself last spring
• a great time at Creative Arts Camp and all the wonderful people there
• looking beyond objects towards the underlying essence of reality
• intuition, spiritual sense, your gut telling you, or that “little birdie” letting you know what you need to know
• old tree branches reaching for the sky
• the fact that religion does not equal conformity
• Love fulfilling the law
• my mother’s block printing press
• our blissful inseparability from infinite, ever-present good
• clearly delineated priorities
• transcendence not compunction
• our son, turning 23, is thriving with meaningful work and nice friends
• enjoying some overnight company here and cooking for them
• art materials of all kinds
• homegrown blackberries picked, made into jam, and the invasive parts ripped out
• the generosity of strangers
• flying above the clouds it is always blue
• fresh perspectives expanding a latent sense of identity
• peach galettes
• getting to be at three weddings in the last year
• darkness is cast out every morning
• really laughing hard
• a refection of foliage so perfect it is like you can see the individual brushstrokes
• dedicated workers
• Painting water at our quarry swimming hole while I pray about fires out west (see photo above).
• God is our refuge and strength
• God is both male and female and neither
• abundance at the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings
• Sunday lunch at the food truck with friends
• gooey egg sandwiches on brioche
• blue shadows in the breeze
• soothing eyes with beautiful images
• a party on a dock by a lake
• a two person kayak, utilized, along with good conversation
• batik fabric
• perfectly ripe avocados
• Our youngest being home for two weeks before starting her junior year. So glad she had such a positive summer internship experience. Grateful she both made good money this summer and got herself a scholarship as well. She finally got her driver’s permit and had her first driving lesson. We had a great time spending a day with her making cabochons for her future seed bead projects. We had fun at the quarry with friends she’s known for a very long time. I was grateful she wanted us both to move her into her first apartment, and also that it was so nice. And (yay!) the building her Physics department is in got a face-lift over the summer. (See the photos below.)
• poached eggs on all sorts of things
• sleeping bags
• ginger kombucha
• that there is only one primal cause and no effect from any other cause
• the emancipation of conscious choices
• stimulation backed by serenity
• every mountain of selfishness is brought low
• new friends opening horizons and expanding thought
• hugging someone so hard their feet leave the ground
• compost piles
• going to art museums I’ve never been to
• good kids utilizing good college educations
• Pandora
• solar power
• that our older daughter had the opportunity to be a chaperone again for another Discovery Bound event. So grateful to that organization and what they do for young people in our church. Grateful all that good is being extended to the next generation as well, and that our daughter is paying it forward.
• percolating with creative ideas
• my screened in side porch
• that our grocery store is getting renovated
• affection and virtue
• dwelling in the secret place of the most high
• the receptivity of my Sunday School class
• chatting with a friend from high school about her first child going off to college
• orange nail polish
• entering a realm of life that is wider, deeper, and firmly rooted in the authentically spiritual
• spunky tugboats
• obliterating default agendas and using active discernment instead
• that the Creator of the universe also preserves, maintains, and saves it
• leaning hard on the sustaining infinite
• a vigil held in humbleness and solidarity
• the power there is in diversity
• light bringing life
• the acknowledged importance of asking questions
• Soul being supreme in the atmosphere of Spirit
• diligence and moxey
• Love is all around
• a congenial but long line under a full summer moon for the best ice cream around
• singing hymns and folksongs around a campfire
• the total comfort of my new Dansko shoes
• new recipes off Instagram
• subtlety
• having some money
• calm water
• seeing the eclipse of the sun through a pinhole, projected onto a white pillowcase, while driving over the Hudson River
• old dependable sewing machines
• direct communication that does not hide behind fear or assumptions
• sharing good books with eager readers
• that our older daughter got to see the milky way with friends after a wedding on Mt. Shasta (photo credit below for that: Duncan Wilder)
• a lively knitting group that fixes each others’ mistakes
• the timelessness of Truth
• stillness and readiness
• GPS
• consistent equilibrium and balance
• picture frames with invisible glass
• a friend graciously delivering and picking up my paintings for me when I needed to be elsewhere
• a clothes closet with color coded hangers
• nurturing curiosity instead of pushing fact based learning
• a flexible heart with kind motivations
• harmonious movement
• peripheral vision
• patience personified
• new blog readers
• long time blog readers
• intelligence manifested
• new opportunities to grow
• extended family on both sides
• the unforced rhythms of grace
• a new academic year
• the first yellow leaves
• a sweet husband
• regeneration
• fresh astonishment: dazzled by God… again!
• appreciating everybody, but especially you.

What are you grateful for?

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