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 taken photographs of some of them with my iPhone, which you can see in this post.

So let’s start this gratitude list with:

• It is spring. Thank goodness for the burgeoning flowers, the rain, the greening moss, the scilla, crocus, and the daffodils, and soon tulips in the yard, but also the early grocery store tulips gracing inside, shown both above and below.
• That the days are longer now, it is still light at dinner time, and the golden late afternoon sun shines in our home from the west. (See it on my mother and child sculpture in our dining room shown below.)
• I’m grateful health and safety are programmed by the divine into our very fabric, inviolate.
• I’m grateful for my recent abstract art workshop in Manchester.
• I’m grateful to have paintings in two shows opening next weekend.
• I’m grateful for my sweet red car, what great shape it is in for its next hundred thousand miles, with its new oil change and clean bill of health, and for the great gas milage it gets. I’m grateful to get to drive a zippy, stick shift car.
• I’m grateful for effulgently expansive quiet time each morning.
• I’m grateful that those that had Covid and the flu are now better.
• I’m grateful for good decisions and the confidence and peace the clarity of those decisions bring.
• I’m grateful for the new book sections in local libraries, and for authors everywhere.
• I’m grateful our younger daughter was home for spring break, and that– to our relief– her new accordion sounds wonderful.
• I’m grateful to be planning a trip to Switzerland with my family– that a bucket list dream will come true this year. I’m grateful for the time our older daughter has put in making those plans.
• I’m grateful for my friends, local and far away, for my book groups, my art cohort, and for intelligent conversation.
• I’m grateful for my family, for my husband’s aunt still going strong (see her below with an amaryllis we sent her), for all the help my sister has been so lovingly receiving moving out of her house, for the new babies being born, as well as the excited expectation of those on the way, for our nephew’s best birthday yet, for our niece being surrounded and buoyed by prayer as she heads into surgery this week, for every need being so graciously met, and for every bit of unconditional love expressed.
• I’m grateful to write poems and create paintings, and to know that my Source of ideas is inexhaustible, always running fresh.
• I’m grateful for color, in clothing, in furnishing, in nature, in fountain pens, in music too.
• I’m grateful for nourishing sunshine, resuscitating sleep, invigorating exercise, and silent meditation.
• I’m grateful for the stability of banks, and for every bit of integrity expressed there.
• I’m grateful for almond pastries with raisins from Ovens of France, and for pignoli cookies brought by guests; strong almond flavoring is an awesome blessing.
• I’m grateful for new recipe ideas, new books to read, new restaurants to try, new places to hike.
• I’m grateful for God’s ever-present help for everybody, without reservation, without delay, and without fail.
• I’m grateful for all progress everywhere; I’m grateful it is inevitable and filled with Truth.
• I’m grateful we’ll be installing new, green, metal raised beds out our front door this year, to replace our deteriorating wood ones.
• I’m grateful to be working on upgrading my art website.
• I’m grateful for my husband and for our companionable relationship.
• I’m grateful my husband’s podcast (the Bible Speaks to You) is reaching such a huge audience that appreciates it so much.
• I’m grateful for hot showers, for peanut butter hummus toast, for a new linen tablecloth, for long time church friends, for General Bakeshop where we’ve been eating lately after church (see the artichoke grilled cheese on their homemade multigrain below), for vacuums, for my first breakfast pizza, for reusable water bottles, for good food from Costco, for light switches and light bulbs, for lots of roaring fires in our fireplace this winter, for roofs that keep us dry, for practical clothing and washing machines, for toilet paper, for pillows, for melodies, for social media, for the lovely tree I enjoyed for over three decades that has just been cut down across the street (see photo), for recycling, for water filters, for chocolate, for Masterpiece Theater, for every meal made for me by someone else (all those meals below for example), for my artist journals, for plans to be painting in Maine in May, June, and September, for balance between busyness and margin in my schedule, for being able to say “no,” for sunsets seen from my studio, for my clients feeling I always have time for them, for questions from my blog readers prompting my new Polly Answers monthly feature, for satisfaction, for curiosity, for beauty, sublimity, texture, intelligence, generosity, and compassion.
• I’m grateful for each one of you blog readers, recent subscribers, as well as long term readers. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your interest, your comments, your questions, your sharing of the posts and website with your friends, family, and colleagues, and for your donations of financial support that keeps this expensive site ad free. This whole outlet would not happen without you, and I’m so glad we can get together to amplify good in this virtual space, where all are welcome and beloved.

What are some of your grace notes? Put them in the comments!