Celebrating Small

  Celebrating with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build.  and linking with others who share their celebrations, too. I am grateful to Ruth for helping us celebrate together!  

“In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.”  ~ Albert Clarke

        I've been paying special attention to small things this week, those tiny things I enjoy, noticing and celebrating that I have them in my life. I've started a list, and hope you have one, too, at least in your mind as you live your days.

• a tall glass of iced tea
• a perfect yellow leaf with a final touch of green - spring memory
• sprinkler sounds still here, not for much longer
• grilled cheese with a favorite bread
• a smile from a stranger as I waited for a green light
• a "like" for a review on Goodreads
• a "found" note from my mother
• a haiku sent to my inbox
• one last ladybug
• grand-girl laughter
• conversations with my son and daughter
• finding a requested book for a customer
• new baby pictures posted on FB
• surprise books in the mail

The week has been good!

Some Special Thoughts

               The weekly Slices of Life can be found at the blog, Two Writing Teachers, created by Stacey Shubitz and Ruth Ayres. Be sure to visit and read, read, read!

         I have mixed emotions about my slice today.  I have just returned from a wonderful family trip with my daughter and two granddaughters (almost one and three years old).  We spent half a week with my side of the family and the other half with my husband’s side.  All too brief was this visit, but filled with so many good memories.  We swam, we saw and petted goats, we played on playgrounds, and we rode on a merry-go-round, in a mall, Ingrid’s first ride!  Imogene began crawling all over, so her exploration was phenomenal.  Ingrid got to play and sing her songs on a real grand piano, and beat out rhythms on an African slit drum.  Because of the drought, we were sorrowful because no lightning bugs appeared, so that will have to be on the next adventure.  We ate ice cream every evening and talked into the night.  My daughter and I got to talk and talk, then talk some more. 

            Ingrid became so excited seeing wind turbines, and wanted photo after photo of them, so we slowed and took all that she wished – click, click.  “Grandma, can I see?”  We looked for red cars and buses and cows, and saw quite a few.  We noted all the colors of the cattle-black, black and white, brown.  We sang songs and looked for anything we could find of interest on the plains of Kansas.  There are many things of beauty, yes, even in a drought, even when it’s over a hundred degrees, even on the plains. 

            If you notice that I’m speaking of small things and being present in the moment, that is what one does with a three year old.  And when one does that, we grown-ups also notice things with a new brightness, a new appreciation. 

Looking Long

                    The Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by Ruth and Stacey at their blog,       
                         Two Writing Teachers.  Go on over to read some terrific slices!

I am reminded of the John Moffitt poem that begins like this:

To look at any thing,

       If you would know that thing,

     You must look at it long:

and you can find the rest here.

I had Sunday afternoon, a cooler day, to do some yard work.  A cold front is on its way, so the temperature had dropped to the 60’s and it was a pleasure to be outside doing a task that I had put off, but needed to do before the Monday trash pickup.  This is definitely a slice of my life, to work outside when I can, now planting a few seeds, pulling grass from the flower beds, sweeping the caterpillar-like seeds dropped from the aspens. 

This time, my task was to rake all the little sticks that drop consistently from the cottonwood tree in our backyard.  While it’s a beautiful old tree that gives wonderful shade, cottonwoods are messy and drop sticks constantly.  We’ve had some high winds recently and more have blown down because of that too.  And so I grabbed my rake, a trash bag and was off to the chore.