Grace Notes (#64 with Photos)

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.

It’s been a while! Let’s start this gratitude list with:

• Our lovely church. We’ve recently had a profound meeting where were dispensed with all the formal bylaws, many meetings, reader elections, and even our board. We all want to spend our time doing things that will make a difference and that cumbersome structure was dragging us down. We are willing and able, but have emphatically decided to prioritize having proof of our utility in our community, over a traditional process. We are small enough to be nimble and love each other enough to trust each other. We are all willing to both carry the load, as well as share it, and to be flexible when someone else is doing something instead of us. What an amazing group of people. I’m so grateful to have landed and having been growing among them. Here’s to our future!
• All the flowers of the season! I am so spoiled to be surrounded by capable gardeners.
• All the company we’ve had this summer. In the photos below are those we had visits with that never yet made it to the blog.
• All healing, however it is accomplished. A cousin of my husband’s is a now a triumphant cancer survivor and we are so very grateful she’s thriving again.
• A gym membership. I am enjoying getting stronger. I’m also grateful for seeing sunrises on my way to the gym.
• My local park where I walk most days. Also my weekly trips to our farmer’s market.
• Asking for help! I’m so grateful that we found someone who could help this blog get over it’s recent catastrophic glitch, and hopefully they will be a big help with the impending redesign.
• I am heading to Maine soon, to paint with friends on Monhegan Island. I’m grateful for that beautiful, rugged place, it’s good food, and the friends I go with.
• For my podcast still going strong (see here) and that I’m in a rhythm with it now.
• I’m grateful for each and every one of my clients.
• That my trip to Nepal and Bhutan is coming up this fall with our older daughter, and that I was able to pay my part with credit card points. I’m grateful she’s a points maven, and has free hotels to add into the mix too. It will be great to be together for so long in such a radically different place. I’m grateful for a blog-ahead feature, so I won’t need to process all my photos from this big trip in real time! (I’m not even sure there is service there?)
• I’m grateful our younger daughter and I had a great trip to Baxter State Park (see here), and on the way home we found a wonderful little haberdasher in Bangor, shown below. I’m grateful for the ranger’s help at Baxter (see here).
• I’m grateful both my husband and younger daughter got to visit our older daughter in California this summer, and both daughters visited here as well.
• I’m grateful for books and libraries and audio books.  I’m grateful for the chairs on my front porch, the easel on our driveway, our picnic table, and our newly repainted side porch. I’m grateful for the Good Ole Days pizzeria in Newtown, where my husband and I have gone on some lovely Friday dinner dates, sitting outside in glorious weather with really good pizza.  I’m grateful for all the rain we’ve had, interspersed with some really fine weather. I’m grateful for sea turtles, manatees, bunny rabbits, octopus, and owls.  I’m grateful for everyone that votes. I’m grateful for air conditioners, showers, ovens and stoves. I’m grateful to play cribbage with my husband most days after dinner. I’m grateful for two new babies in the extended family. I’m grateful for old friends and new ones.
• I’m grateful for you dear blog readers, who are quick to notify me when the blog isn’t working. That is so helpful, allowing us to respond more quickly. I’m grateful you continue to be interested in this blog, share it, and support it. I’m grateful to be magnifying good with you. Thank you for being you!

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