I got home from work just in time to tidy up the mess, clear the stray dishes from the sink to the dishwasher, and get elbow-deep into cooking supper. And that's when it happened. It took me by surprise, and I usually don't like surprises.
A desire to journal my gratitude began to swell in me as I read of others who did the same. I, too, wanted to be aware of, not innocuous to, all the small yet significant ways God was speaking his grace to me. So I started looking, noticing, recording and counting.
But today was different. Today, the gratitude found me. I had to stop grating cheese to write down the blessings that fell over me like many exquisite feathers from a broken pillow. And I had to write to keep up, so as not to miss a single tickle from the down.
The feather-graces give me wings and flight, to a loftier place, a higher perspective, above the daily din and half-baked dinner, and the day's worries that weigh down so. I can see how this could be addictive, and how I'd want to always fly, and never stop counting, looking, finding, or, best yet, being found.
151. hummingbirds stealing nectar from my backyard
152. finishing books
153. cousins that live close and are close friends
154. neighbors that hire your children when they're away
155. crockpot macaroni and cheese
156. purple fountain grass and million bells that don't wither in 103 degree July
157. back to back youth camp and kids camp
158. one week alone time with Reagan
159. prayer
160. back to school shopping
161. kids who like to do my text-messaging and load my mp3 player for me
162. new music to listen to
163. being healthy to earn a paycheck
164. glimpses of maturity and graciousness in my daughter
165. kissing my teen's and pre-teens' cheeks, and they like it, and admit it, and kiss back
166. my kids filling my home with the music they make
167. my kids filling my sink with the dishes they dirty and consoling myself with, "savor it, someday they'll not be here to..."
168. anticipating company -- half the fun
169. opportunities to believe without seeing and the challenge of that
170. bare feet on cool green grass
171. that there is something cool right now
172. full moon shining through tree leaf frame on our back deck
173. surprises...sometimes
174. being found
3 comments
I love the leaf moon frame. How beautiful. I'm with you on the kids playing the piano too...what a blessing. (Every week I tell myself to go take lessons myself!)
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your list and it is contagious! Also thanks for let me know you share some of the same "childhood sorrow" as I. The Lord bless your day with more surprises!
What a beautiful post! I loved it when you wrote, "I had to stop grating cheese to write down the blessings that fell over me like many exquisite feathers from a broken pillow."
ReplyDeleteWOW. You are one gifted writer.
Your blessings list has put a skip in my step this morning. Thank you Dawn!
these were lovely and heartfelt 'graces' that
ReplyDeletetouched my heart. i, too, have overlooked
dishes in the sink all summer, savering that
they reflected many loving bodies home.
i thought your photo was a video at first,
because the light was caught so well.
love,
lea
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