Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 294: Enough
Grateful for a slow moving morning full of snuggles and storybook reading in bed. Grateful for the endless semi-serious and semi-silly conversations with my favorite five year old. Grateful for the magic that is the large floating balloons of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Grateful for a guilt free apple crisp breakfast.
Grateful for a brisk morning walk with my two favorite people and a quick reminder that nature always delivers magic no matter the time or the season. Grateful for crunchy fallen leaves that reveal strong steady branches. Grateful for slowly moving river water and for the pop of wild bushes and bold berries. Grateful for warm coats and strong legs and able bodies that help us explore and connect and remember.
Grateful for an afternoon of cooking only our favorite foods in our favorite place with our favorite holiday mix playing softly in the background. Grateful for our pots and pans, our knives, our cutting boards, our random collection of small appliances, our cupboard of spices and jar of spatulas. Super grateful for the love of a good and talented apron wearing man who conjures culinary wonders day after day after day.
Grateful for my grandmother's crystal goblets, for my mothers special occasion silverware and for the joy of setting a fancy table with my Sarah Kate. Grateful that she was absolutely delighted by the “fancy-ness” of these generational treasures and spent over an hour inspecting every single detail. Grateful for my cheap but stunning plastic chargers and my all season buffalo check table runner. Grateful for our wrinkly should have been ironed but who really cares cloth napkins and for our everyday boring white dishes. Grateful that when these items were mixed together this afternoon absolute magic was created for our tiny aspiring Martha Stewart.
Grateful for good food and even better conversation inside our tiny family of three. Grateful for the adventure of trying new flavors and savoring the bites and bits that bring joy and nourishment. Grateful for a cozy evening in front of our fire building lego castles and eating the most delicious apple pie. Grateful for the time we have been given to be together...just us.
Grateful for dishwashers...so very grateful for a dishwasher….always very grateful…
Grateful for the passing of time. Grateful for a full rotation around the sun and for the paradoxical process of growth and joy coming from darkness and hardship. Grateful for healed hearts. Grateful for forgiveness and for the restoration of hope. Grateful for the ability to change and evolve and decide. Grateful for the last year of hard. WHEW! Grateful to be celebrating another Thanksgiving and feeling a deeper level of gratitude for all that I’ve learned since the 2019 turkey feast. Really grateful to be on this end of the stretch.
All these things...each quite simple on their own have become somehow equally and powerfully...enough. Not one of these things considered spectacular really and yet when woven together my heart is brimming. My heart is at peace even with all of the hard and all of the unknown that continues to swarm and bubble and pierce. My heart is at peace and that is no small thing.
Grateful for my people. Grateful for my hangups and shortfalls. Grateful for the mess and the magic and grateful for this quote...this idea that when we apply a hefty dose of gratitude all that we have actually transforms and becomes...enough....this is the real gift of the season.