call me thankful...

I look at the calendar and am

continually amazed when

this time of year rolls around again.

How ever did that happen so quickly?

A few years ago I stumbled upon the book Simple Abundance at a thrift sale -- and read it daily that first year.  It suggested keeping a Gratitude Journal -- writing down 5 things daily that one appreciates.  I did that well for about a month....then wandered off from that to just jot a note in it every now & again.  So this time of year takes me back to that list --- 5 things that one appreciates.  Now, the typical way one might go about this is to do the basic:  home, family, friends, health, work......but what if it needed to be specific -- detailed moments that caught your breath and made you think, "I am indeed lucky".

So, do call me thankful for:

1. Running across the farm yard with three cats at my side - Whisper, Chestnut & Cinnamon.  They keep steady to my pace, making me feel like an Olympian.  And when we make it to the barn door -- I am surrounded by a chorus of purrs -- a fitting closing ceremony.
2. Turkeys in a compote, buttons in an Ironstone bowl, quilts in a pile, magazines stacked by season, lace at the window -- gentle & inviting nuances that say "this is home".
3. The stack of 1st edition Harry Potter books found on a recent antique trip -- with a call to my Ian, they now await his homecoming --- my 23 year old has discovered reading for pleasure -- and I am not caring if that reading is about a boy & his owl or the best of William Shakespeare -- he is reading.
4. A call to the front desk of my office just yesterday-- where a client waits with flowers and a card that says, "thanks for your guidance".  Oh my -- I can't even put words to what that means to me.
5. Ladders.  This morning I asked Dave to take the ladder up to the hayloft -- I need to put the barn to bed for the winter and have some taking down to do upstairs after the last Barn Sale.  There was a quilt hung in the rafters I would need to get.  And then I saw him folding the quilt in his arms on our porch in the early light, gentle and thoughtful -- he had taken the quilt down for me.  And I thought about ladders we climb to reach our goals or maybe to even reach for a star or two.  What would we do if there were not others to hold that ladder steady, to encourage us to climb, to maybe even lead the way up.......so, my blog friends -- I am thankful for each of you.  You might not even know that you do that -- but you do, you hold my ladder every now & again.  Please know I am thankful -- ever so thankful for that. 

Do call me thankful....