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:

• for our fabulous trip to Switzerland. Wow. If you missed it, you can follow along in detail on blogs from August 1 – August 22. What a huge blessing that I feel lasting, overwhelming gratitude for. Not only was the trip and being together fabulous, getting to do it feels like it blew the doors off of all sorts of other limitations I didn’t even know I entertained, and I’m grateful for this too.
• for the wonderfulness that is Creative Arts Camp. I’m grateful for my class and video teacher and everyone that was there. I’m grateful to have created a video that explains my art, which will go on my new art site– a site that I’m grateful is almost finished (October?) after months of work. If you missed it, you can see my video here. I’m grateful also, for everyone that swam with me to Cherry Island or played bananagrams with me at camp. I’m grateful I get to teach painted paper collage next year there, and that I’ll get to be there among these delightful people again next August.
• for getting to meet one niece’s son for the first time (this pandemic born kid is already 3 years old)! For getting to be with another niece on her birthday, and for soon getting to meet another niece’s new baby at our nephew’s wedding this month. I’m grateful too for the wonderful woman that nephew is marrying.  I am so grateful for all this wonderful extended family. I’m also grateful for getting to help my sister and her daughter relocate; it was a busy, squeezed in time, but I’m grateful it did fit in and we could swing it. It was great to get together the group in the photo above, all too rare for us.
• for our sweet home and overflowing garden. For our flowers and produce, for our new bright doormat that I bought in Maine, for having friends over on Labor Day for my homemade tuna burgers, for hosting book group here, for our window conditioner in our bedroom on these recent hot days.
• for selling another painting though my old website, which is in the mail to Florida right now.
• for getting in the Pastel Society of America show (wahoo!), as well as the PSME and CPS national shows (blog posts to come). I’m grateful acceptances into shows outweigh the rejections these days. I’m grateful I kept trying and that there appears to be more of an openness to abstraction– even if it is only a crack in the door, it is progress that I’m grateful for.
• for good spiritual healings in my prayer practice, and for people getting the help that they need. I’m grateful for all of my clients: new, ongoing, intermittent, and past. It is such a privilege to love them and see them right. Thank you for all of the referrals which keep on coming and makes this work sustaining.
• for our amazingly marvelous daughters and a sweet, dear, saint of a husband, for new and long time friends, and for time alone too!
• for my farmer’s market and locally sourced food, for restaurant meals as an occasional treat, for not living a lifestyle where I ever eat fast food, for what people bring to potlucks, for the abundance of capacious grocery carts, for the ability to freeze summer freshness to eat all winter long, for our local source of very fresh fish, for Costco and Trader Joes, and for an efficient food chain that can bring fresh produce from afar. For luxuries like kiwis and mangoes, Brazil and macadamia nuts! For making lots of gazpacho (either yellow or red) and sharing it widely.
• for being the flower committee at church (see a couple bouquets below), for swimming with church friends at the quarry. For our church family in general, which is supportive and dedicated, inspired and diligent. There is so much to rejoice about in our small but mighty branch church.
• for my husband’s podcast (The Bible Speaks to You) cresting 200 episodes and being listened to in 168 countries.
• for getting to go and paint in Maine twice this month! (Happy dance!)
• for safety driving, for shadow patterns, for erasers, for reading, for lawnmowers, for patience, for walks and hikes in nature, for glue, for a husband who washes dishes and does laundry, for computers, for huge, but quiet brown moths in the parking lot, for Easter lilies which bloom like crazy off season, for great compost made of my kitchen scraps, for interesting views through glass blocks, for homemade pottery, for fresh understanding, for eureka moments, for energy to do all I do, for good night’s sleep, for generosity everywhere, for cold, filtered water, for kindness and grace, for needed reform gaining momentum, for resplendent joy, for prosperity, for the wisdom that comes with experience, for the super moon, for God governing the combination of ideas, for new ways of solving problems, for clarity and felicity, for knowing your/my own worth.
• for each and everyone of you terrific blog readers! Thank you for reading this blog, for subscribing, for sharing it, for commenting, and for supporting it financially if you can. You are what makes this space possible and I’m glad we can come together in this virtual space. So many of you I feel I know, even though we’ve never met. You being here, and reading this far, is such a blessing to me, and I’m so very grateful.

What are some of your grace notes? Tell us in the comments!