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

So let’s start this gratitude list with:

• The fact that I repeatedly got to float around the quarry with our youngest (see photo above) this summer. We had this  blissful and memorable time together, often there alone together, just the two of us.
• Grateful for our trip to Sacramento to visit our older daughter. We enjoyed hearing her be second reader, seeing her new office for her new job (that she likes and is great at), meeting her boyfriend (who is nice), visiting the Pacific sea stacks, the Marin Headlands, Muir Woods, and the California Train Museum.
• Also grateful for visit with friends and the saguaros in 110º Tuscon and side jaunt to hike in Sedona, Arizona
• When picking our youngest up from her summer internship in a quantum optics lab at Rochester University– glad she made good friends, liked the church there, and got done early– we enjoyed visiting a beach on Lake Ontario that we had to get to by climbing over, under, and around many big trees downed by a storm (see 3rd to last photo). It was fun and great to be together again, as well as have her home for the longest time since her freshman year (hence the repeated floating… see item 1).
• reflection in still ponds
• palm trees against blue skies
• the fact that God is the only Cause and Creator
• an unexpected, last minute one woman show
• ephemeral sunrises
• bushels of basil from the garden
• both bunny and monkey families visit (see photo)
• pottery wheels and throwing platters
• quaint houses on Main Street
• a nice visit from my brother-in-law from Texas and my sister-in-law and her husband from Virginia
• that my husband enjoys my humor
• peaches ripening in our front yard
• unity and diversity in composition
• my new outdoor painting station in the driveway
• a parking lot with puddles that look like huge footprints (see photo)
• the sturdy rock walls of the quarry and all their color variation
• that your identity is the reflection of Soul
• my sister’s visit here and then driving 12 hours with her to Michigan together (below see photo with her chatting with my husband at Red Lobster along the way.)
• a lovely reunion with my dad’s side of the family
• walking around University of Michigan North campus again with a good friend from college
• so much rain the reservoirs are full to overflowing again
• a bumper crop of rasperries
• contrails diffusing
• recycling
• garlic scapes galore
• the all too occasional blue sky
• our youngest having her first lemon possett (with raspberry sorbet)
• days of painting
• a tiny star shadow on a leaf
• glad that my spiritual healing practice is being effective and growing
• shells and sticks crunching under foot
• a corinthian column holding up the universe
• a friend’s berry almond cake
• handblown glass
• friends that invite you over for dinner
• rounded rocks
• different perspectives
• young adult literature
• my book club and knitting group
• eight foot sunflowers
• egg sandwiches at our food truck
• ropey trees
• working in black and white
• progress that is merely the unfoldment of completeness
• a selfie in a sculpture at the bottom of the stairs (see photo)
• changeable skies
• new opportunities for both my husband and me
• air conditioners on muggy days
• moss on bark
• brightly lit Wednesday evening meetings
• pastel shows
• my interval, cardio, and metabolic classes at the gym
• clean windows
• advance reader’s copies of books
• serendipity
• oil paintings trying to dry in this incessant humidity
• the Christian Science Monitor newspaper and all who work there
• fresh corn on the cob straight from the farm
• freeing imprisoned thought
• popcorn with real butter at the movies
• that there is no unmet yearning
• the camaraderie and produce at Saturday morning farmer’s markets
• joy and love generated courage
• that our younger daughter loved the Mother Church’s college summit and our older daughter was a chaperone for the concurrent Discovery Bound high school group. (See last phot below.) It was so fun to pick them up together in Boston for a thrilled drive home as they overflowed with excitement and ideas for church and the future.
• Looking forward to teaching a class on the Art of Seeing at Camp Newfound in Maine, as well as being an Artist in Residence there, and giving my PowerPoint on Abstraction.
• good is busting out all over
• you, my dear dear blog readers

What are some of your Grace Notes? Please share them in the comments!

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