GRATITUDE
So, it’s about 2am. I’m wide awake laying in my bed. I can hear the rain on the roof of this old, uninsulated house and it sounds like a sweet , melodic lullaby. One of many favorite things I enjoy about living here. It’s warmish, at least warmer than usual under my covers. I discovered a nice piece of arbutus wood while feeding the wood stove one last time before bed. That means i can stay put under the covers and will still have a nice coal bed to start up with in the morning.
Lucky me! And I really do mean and feel lucky, or perhaps the word is fortunate. I think it is a wonderful thing to be able take the ordinary day to day occurrences and be grateful, and appreciate them. To settle by a window with your morning coffee or tea and just be happy and positive for the very simplest of things; the taste of the good coffee, its aroma, the warmth of the mug on your cold hands. The fact that all you had to do to get that hot drink was to turn on a tap and fill up a kettle to boil.
As I lay here, cocooned in this warm, safe embrace of old quilts, shielded from the rain storm and winter elements but by virtue of living in an old drafty home not completely disconnected from them either, I wonder if happiness is really that simple?
The practice of taking each occurrence throughout our days and feeling grateful for them. To practice feeling satisfied, and rather than focussing on what we don’t have, taking time to celebrate what we do have.
So, when I got up in the morning the rain had changed to snow. I wasn’t really prepared for that; a sudden winter snowscape. But it allowed me time to stay put and get busy with some holiday baking. Gratitude.