Lessons in Gratitude Day 353

One step forward and two steps back–at least I hope it’s only two steps. Had a good day yesterday and had hoped to build on that a bit by having another good one–you know, go for two in a row. But it was not to be today. Perhaps it was the crash after a high, hard to say. Or perhaps yesterday’s goodness was a reprieve from the stress and anxiety that permeates much of my day-to-day life. I fight some days harder than others to establish and maintain a positive, hopeful outlook, which takes a great deal of energy some days. Today, I lost a little bit of ground. Nevertheless, I will dig into my bag of gratitude goodies to see what I can pull out to create a wee space of appreciation to close out the day.

Sitting at my desk with my window open I feel the cool breeze of a mid-summer Bay area evening. The moon, bright, creamy white and wonderful is just rising over the trees that line the back parking lot of our complex. The raucous call of the crows outside earlier have now quieted and the natural sounds of the night begin to take over from the day shift. The robin who’s been hanging about of late is chirping her warning calls to any who might be thinking of invading her space. It’s such an odd thing to hear at night, but she faithfully calls out each night at full evening (around 9 p.m.) for no longer than about five minutes before she quiets and settles down. These sights and sounds are things I do not tire of and yet they are so simple. I am grateful for the simplicity when so many things are unnecessarily complicated.

Tonight I will once again include what I call the “night time prayer” from the New Zealand Book of Prayer as I close early tonight. For some reason I find the words quite comforting.