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:

• This dear man I’m married to (shown above). I’m grateful for his moral fibre, his excellent motives, his spirit of helpfulness, and his devotion to being a life-long learner. Also grateful that I got to be on his podcast last week (listen here).
• I’m grateful both daughters were home for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. That our younger daughter finished knitting her complicated socks and that our older daughter got to go to Chez Panisse for her birthday. Also grateful that our older daughter and I were upgraded, while we were in Boston, to a hotel room with a harbor view. I’m grateful both daughters talk to me so often.
• I’m grateful for some solid time working in my office/studio. I love January; it is such a good time to hunker down.
• I’m grateful for lots of cosy evenings around our fireplace.
• I’m grateful for families getting together.
• I’m grateful for new babies that we’ll get to watch grow up.
• I’m grateful for readers in our church, who just finished a three year term (we gave them roses). I’m grateful James and I (with the help of others) are taking on that mantle. I’m grateful we are splitting up that job going forward.
• I’m grateful for all my art supplies, including my new pastels (shown below) that I got in December.
• I’m grateful for the restaurant food shown below. I love eating at home, but cooking by others can be wonderful too.
• I’m grateful for our sweet home, shown in a couple photos below. I’m especially grateful for my mom’s yellow chair (also known as my “prayer chair”) from which I run my life.
• I’m grateful for the flexibility of my work schedule.
• I’m grateful for having strong, harmonious relationships with my sisters.
• I’m grateful to be looking forward to teaching several workshops this year, and not only my usual ones.
• I’m grateful for all my books, for my book groups, for libraries everywhere, and for audio books too!
• I’m grateful for spending time working in my artist journals.
• I’m grateful for having finally eaten all that butternut squash my husband grew!
• I’m grateful for summer produce put up in our freezer.
• I’m grateful for our sweet neighbor who cut down our peach trees, so we can expand our raspberry harvest there instead.
• I’m grateful for our new juicer.
• I’m grateful for my New Year’s resolution, which is off to a good start.
• I’m grateful for sunsets, for kindness, for organic sourdough bread, for roasted almonds, for Facetime, for poems, for community, for bakery breakfast sandwiches, for eggplant parmesan, for grace under pressure, for new opportunities, for job prospects, for generosity, for graciousness, for honesty, for friendship, for toilet paper, for shovels, for big birds out my office window, for wisdom, for shimmery ink, for our productive, indoor lemon tree, for journals and fountain pens, for Mediterranean rocks on my desk, for purified water, for cashmere sweaters and scarves, for vacuums, for the ceramic bust I made still going strong, for lovely produce available in winter, beautifully presented, for light bulbs, for being understood.
• I’m very grateful for each and every one of you blog readers – the new ones and the long time ones alike. Thank you for being here, for letting this blog into your life to whatever degree. Thank you for subscribing to it, utilizing it to shine joy into your life, for sharing it with others, for commenting on it, and possibly even for financially supporting it. This blog would not exist without a readership and I’m so grateful for you.

Share some of your grace notes in the comments!