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This is a periodic blog feature I call “grace notes.” It occasionally captures my jottings of incidental gratitude. 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.

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– which you can see in this post.

So let’s start this gratitude list with:

• The last of the snow has come and gone and we have crocus, scilla, and daffodils in our yard. So grateful for some warmer days and getting out to walk again in milder air. So grateful my husband gardens and we have flowers outside with which to greet the spring, as well as orchids inside to cheer us as well.
• I’m grateful for my new streamlined white storage boxes from IKEA for my paint. What a major improvement both in function and looks!
• I’m grateful we had our daughter home over spring break and for our wonderful trip to the New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show. I’m glad she is in her last weeks zooming toward graduation. I’m grateful for Facetime that allows us to chat with her live, while watching as she does her ceramics in another state! (See photo below.) And I’m glad she likes to talk with us.
•  I’m very excited to have planned a month long camping trip for just our youngest and me. We are going to northeastern Canada this summer, so expect lots of photos in July and early August! The campsites and ferries are booked! I’m so happy to go exploring with her, seeing new sites, basking in the beauty of nature, plein air painting, and getting in loads of quality time.
• Yes, I like cooking, but I’m always grateful for all the occasions I eat other people’s good food. I’m grateful to have been quite social lately with “ladies’ nights out”, bookclub potlucks here, a church potluck, and dinner parties out… you can see some of that food below. I’m grateful for all this lovely community that revolves around food. I’m also grateful for the Little Pub, a great Sunday brunch spot that we liked, which closed this month (see photo below).
• I’m grateful we hosted a well attended and well received lecture in our church about effective change, and I’m grateful it was met with enthusiasm by some newcomers.
• I’m grateful for my fun, supportive, sweet husband. I’m grateful we like to read together, play cribbage together, discuss hopes and dreams together, get metaphysical together. I’m grateful for all our progress together and separately. And I’m grateful he does all the tax stuff and I don’t have to; what a blessing that is to me!
• I’m grateful for our meaningful conversations lately on the Clergy Association, about white privilege, entitlement, and compassion.
• I’m grateful to be teaching an ongoing abstract art class on Monday mornings, and am also grateful for the opportunity to teach a two day workshop next weekend, called Adventures in Abstraction, to pastel artists in the Connecticut Pastel Society.
• I’m grateful to have paintings in two commercial galleries right now, the Zahn Gallery at the Middlesex Hospital in Connecticut, and Roux and Cyr in Portland, Maine. I am also glad to be currently in the Connecticut Women Artists Juried Show, as well as some Guildford Arts League shows.
• I’m grateful to be getting my feet wet listening to podcasts, and have been enjoying some of those very much.
• I’m grateful for fresh spiritual inspiration and for getting answers when I ask for direction. I’m grateful this is true for others too.
• I’m grateful my spiritual practice continues to be of help to clients. I love getting the thrilled calls after everything worked out better than they could have hoped! That just never gets old.
• I’m grateful for socks, and umbrellas, and sunsets, and vegetables, and my bright yellow leather prayer chair, and the internet, and for heat, and for family, and for indoor plumbing, and for authors and books.
• I’m grateful for this blog and for each and every reader of it. I treasure each and every one of you and am so glad we are in this together. Thank you for being here!

What are some of your grace notes?

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