Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Sometimes I get filled up with gratitude for everything and everyone in my life — family, friends, pets, trees, flowers, gardens, dirt, green grass, butterflies, rain, sunshine, moonlight, and stars — you name it.

“i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)”
― E.E. Cummings

This has been one of those gratitude filled weeks for me. Despite it being a hectic week I kept feeling like thanking everything in sight. So I did (mostly silently). My litany went like this…

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

“Thank you raspberry plants for all of the wonderful berries you gave me this year. I hope you like your new home and don’t mind getting moved away from the house. Thank you Jon, for being so willing to do all of this hot, sweaty, back breaking work to move plants that I care about when you don’t even like to eat their produce. Thank you God for this most amazing universe. Thank you rain for watering my plants. Thank you sun for shining down and helping all of the green things grow.

Thank you landscapers for coming in and removing all of the rocks and tree stumps from the back yard and for the new green sod you planted. Thank you ground for all of the nutrients you provide all of the growing things. Thank you turtles for sunning on the log by the pond. Thank you frogs for surprising me by leaping in front of me as I walk in the grass. Thank you butterfly weed, bee balm, and day lily for taking to your new homes down by the pond. Thank you Bibi cat for making me grateful for Gracie’s relative calm next to your constant activity. Thank you Gracie cat for purring so sweetly. Thank you Marcus and Evie for making me laugh.

“I will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air
Alive
with closed eyes
to dash against darkness”
― E.E. Cummings, Poems, 1923-1954

Thanks for family, beauty, and nature

For most of the week I spent an hour or two per day cat sitting for our daughter. Bibi (one of her cats) hung out with me on her screened porch in the shade of her tall maple trees. It felt like I was hanging out in my own little piece of forest sans mosquitoes because of the screens. Wonderful!

I got to spend 2 mornings at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum this week, one with my grandkids. We took cameras along to photograph some of the interesting origami sculptures there. It was so fun sharing one of my favorite places and activities (photography) with the kids.

The landscapers we hired came this week to remove the rocks and tree stumps from our formerly shady yard which due to the loss of 2 large trees (1 to a storm and 1 to old age) is now a bright and sunny yard. We had sod laid down so that the yard would be easier to care for as we get older. It was amazing how quickly the landscapers got the work done and how different the yard looks now.

“The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.”
― E.E. Cummings

What fills you with gratitude? When was the last time you said, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”?

May you walk in beauty and gratitude.