Sometimes I am like a broken record–I find myself returning to particular themes over and over again as I write this blog. But then I realize that I can’t help it. On my journey of gratitude I repeatedly reconnect with variations of the same themes. For example, I have written about family many times over the past 900+ days. The beauty of returning to themes it that it causes me to pay attention differently. Even though I’ve frequently written about how grateful I am for my siblings, my children, my extended family, I constantly gain new insights or fresh inspiration about something new and wonderful about them that deepens my gratitude. The beauty I see in nature all around me is also a consistent theme; the things I notice as I walk the dog or drive down a country road or sit outside in the evening are constantly new and wondrous. So many things to be grateful for, I really am surrounded by blessings.
At the end of a long day in a really long, “short” week (because of the Labor Day holiday), I don’t really have the energy to be particularly profound, but will offer what I’ve come to call simple gratitude, gratitude for very basic, ordinary, often unremarkable things that nonetheless add such value and richness to my life.
I am grateful simply for this day and the way it unfolded. I began my work day having one critical task that had to be accomplished by early afternoon. It would require some dedicated work from and cooperation of our team. I am pleased and grateful for the way they showed up, contributed their time, energy, and thinking to help us get it done. And get it done we did, even though there was a last-minute glitch that required me to leave the final piece in the hands of one of my colleagues to complete the project. It’s nice to be able to turn something that important over to a trusted coworker and know that it will get done and be done thoroughly and well. That is a wonderful thing.
I’m grateful for my four-legged sidekick, Honor, who continues to model for me how to not sweat the small stuff, to live in the moment, enjoy laying in the grass on a sunny day, demonstrating completely unconditional love and devotion, interacting with openness and friendliness to everyone you meet, and taking great pleasure in the simplest of things. In scary moments I worry about what I’d do without her and how sad I’ll be when she’s gone, but then I realize that’s exactly the point: to live and love in the moment and not sit in dread anticipation about that hopefully distant but completely inevitable day when she and I will part company for good on this side of the earth plane. Still, there are few beings who are sweeter than she is and I am more grateful than I can express to have her in my life.
I am grateful for the basics in my life: a roof over my head that keeps me safe, dry, and warm (or cool), good, healthy food in my refrigerator, reliable transportation that carries me everywhere I need to go. And while I continue to have the normal aches and pains of a 55+ year old person, I am relatively healthy and able bodied, and do not take my mobility and good health for granted. I have, as I wrote the other day, what I need , even if at times I want more. And I am, of course grateful for my family, who constantly warm me with their love; that too I try not to take for granted. At the end of the day, I know they have my back and I have theirs.
At the end of a long day, it is good to reflect on the simple blessings in one’s life. I for one am deeply grateful for and am looking forward to a little rest this weekend. As I prepare to rest my head and quiet my mind, I found myself thinking about the song, “Day is Done,” also known as “Taps” that they play in the military at the end of the day and at memorial services. From the first verse:
Day is done, gone the sun From the lakes, from the hills, from the skyAll is well, safely rest
God is nigh.
And so it is.
