Giving Thanks by the Lake

I am thankful for those of you who read my musings on a regular basis and who pass the link along to others.  Today in the fear that I might let you down, I am not going to write anymore about my thankfulness.  I am going to challenge myself and you to go about the day consciously seeking out moments to be thankful for.  Not things or accomplishments, but moments.  Simple spaces between breaths when experiences, feelings, and people make our hearts bubble with gladness.

Simple Spaces

We are not very good at recognizing the simple spaces because we often move so quickly through our days that we leave no room for simple spaces.  We just returned from the lake where we had next to no cell coverage.  In fact it was so bad that Greg had to stand on a picnic table and hold his phone up and away from his body to get any reception at all.  I was left imagining him wearing a tinfoil hat with a metal coat hanger as an antenna standing on the table wiggling his nose toward the south in hopes of not dropping his call.  Well you know how this old mind works.  The image stuck with me for a couple of days and I started wondering if we needed to be similarly tuned in to recognize simple spaces.  

A Different Perspective

I am convinced that despite whatever sadness or loss we deal with, there are still tiny slivers of space in our lives where we can encounter the grace of gratitude.  The trick is to become aware, to slow down, put our tinfoil hats on, and raise our antenna.  Sometimes it is a matter of looking at the world upside down; changing our perspective so we are able to see a different picture or a unique beauty.  Or it might be looking for the reflection.


There was a dead tree that had fallen into the lake.  Although I noticed it the first evening it didn't speak to me of beauty.  It was a dead tree that was creating a hazard on a path along the edge of the lake.  I saw only the problems with the tree.  Then the morning came and the angle of the light changed.  I was sitting still instead of trying to get somewhere, and I realized that the dead tree was now part of a greater picture.  The morning light created the perfect shadow on a calm mirror-like lake.  Looking at the dead tree I experienced a simple space of elegance in nature, a picture composed by one greater than me, an opportunity to breathe in the sight and allow my heart to bubble with gladness.

Enjoy Thanksgiving Day.  Enjoy it with a heightened awareness of the simple spaces where gladness lie!    

Comments

  1. I just made myself a little space between the hub-bub of family, just to read your blog. Thanks! Great thoughts. You just get better and better.

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