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:

• Wonderful travels! Since the last edition of Grace Notes, I’ve been to Monhegan Island in Maine to paint with friends, to England to visit London, the Lake District, Northumberland, the Yorkshire Downs, then back to Maine to teach my Non-traditional Surfaces and Techniques in Pastel workshop, and then to Texas to see my husband’s family. All of it was terrific beyond words and I am so very grateful for each one of these fabulous occasions!
• I’m grateful for early voting and the right to vote. (Just voted photo above).
• I’m grateful for the glorious fall foliage which feeds and sustains my soul. The weather and deep blue skies this October were spectacular.
• I’m grateful our younger daughter came home for fall break in October and we’ll be seeing our older daughter, when she comes east next weekend. These are two marvelous women, and I am so grateful to count them as dear friends! I am grateful both are well settled, and employed doing meaningful things. I love to hear about it!
• I’m grateful for my sisters and our growing bond, and for my husband’s family and that my bond with them grows as well, with particular shout outs to his 95 year old aunt, and our Louisiana niece and young daughter, who came up to Texas when we were there to see us. We are also grateful for the safe and healthy delivery of our Corpus Christi nephew’s first baby, a beautiful girl with a lovely name.
• I’m grateful for my husband, who is such a thoughtful, supportive companion to me. I’m grateful we too bonded even more on our vacation in England, our first trip with just the two of us in 14 years. We were in each other’s space incessantly for almost two weeks, and thoroughly enjoyed one another. I’m grateful for that. (I’m also grateful we agree on politics!)
• I’m grateful for our sweet home, and what a delight it is to come home to. (See our suitcases happily returned in our humble foyer in the first photo below.) I am also grateful for our routines in this house, for our comfy bed (it is the best), for my third floor personal office/studio space, for my husband’s garden, and for our own food.
• I’m grateful for all of our friends, which make our lives so interesting and full. Every time we get together, I have more reasons to be grateful. An example of this is in the second photo below, showing homeschooling friends I’m grateful we continue to be in relationship with. I am also grateful to meet some new friends in England recently, and to get to know other ones better while there.  I look forward to growing those relationships.
• I am also grateful for all the food I’ve had recently that was prepared by others, photos of which I show in this post. Especially fun and delicious were Street & Co (in Portland, Maine, with art friends) and Zohara Mediterranean Kitchen (with husband in West Hartford on the way home from the airport). That orange zest and cinnamon bun shown below our daughter brought us from her farmers market, and the seafood bisque and omelette the next morning were during a visit to a friend’s lovely cabin in Maine, after my workshop, before coming home.
• And I love all the little “God things.” An example is when I visited that friend in Maine, I regretted not having time to see another friend there, since I only had one day, but God had other plans. We went out to lunch, and were the only ones in a lovely, remote, little lunch place, when who walks in the door but the other friend! Neither of us had ever been there before, and were both brought by other people. What was the likelihood? Anyway, that surprise meeting is shown too in the photos below. So much happens to me that is beyond coincidence, I’ve come to embrace the fact that something larger is at work. I’ve learned I can trust that, which I’m really grateful for too!
• When I was in England, I was grateful to be able to visit where Unison Colour Pastels are made in Northumberland. They didn’t sell pastels there, and since I was prepared to buy some from them, I bought the lovely box shown below– on sale– once I got home. I’m grateful such beautiful pastels exist, let alone that I get to own and use them.
• I’m grateful for our warm and genuine church family, and all their love. I’m grateful for everyone’s dedication and service and inspiration.
• I’m also grateful for the convivial fellowship in the Ridgefield Clergy Association, of which I’ve been an active participant since 1997. I’m grateful our local interfaith culture is strong.
• I’m grateful for Costco, Community Shellfish, and our farmer’s market, which make our great food possible.
• I’m grateful for a quiet November and early December, just working, followed by another release of traveling in the middle of December. I’m grateful our holidays, both Thanksgiving and Christmas will be very quiet and down-played, and that I’ll be fully available to work for others during those times.
• I’m grateful for lovely sunsets, picnic tables in the October sun, my little red stick-shift turbo sport Honda Civic that is still going strong, my book groups, the new art journals I bought in England, and the fact that my husband and I play cribbage most nights after dinner when we are home together just the two of us. I’m grateful for kippered salmon, macadamia nuts, pillows, reflections in water, texture, salt, hummus with warm homemade pita, earbuds, and wool clogs. I’m grateful for hiking at Huntington.  I’m grateful for expansive opportunities unfolding fresh and new all the time, as well as for hope, integrity, and every single expression of benevolent kindness.
• I’m grateful for you blog readers who are so very important to me. You keep this blog thing going, and I’m so thankful for that. Thank you for your readership, your subscriptions, your sharing, your commenting, and your financial support. Without you, this cosy, good-affirming corner of the internet could not thrive. You are a self-selecting and wonderful bunch!

Share some of your Grace Notes in the comments!