46. Shafts of morning sunlight.
47. Piles of pumpkins.
48. The rat-a-tat of rain pelting the window.
49. Those quick "I love you, Mom's."
50. Sunset clouds rimmed in fiery salmon pink.
51. The flag rippling in the breeze.
52. Gold leaves against an October blue sky.
53. Friendly service with a smile.
54. Pumpkin spice lattes.
55. Our competent and compassionate dentist.
56. Tree-lined streets.
57. The scratchy sound of skittering leaves.
58. The stars at twilight.
59. Thick, misty fog.
60. Hundreds of geese flying overhead (I actually pulled the car over and watched them because it was such an incredible sight!)
Our hometown newspaper carries a weekly column written by talented local author, Elaine Rohse,
ReplyDeleteentitled "Rohse-colored Glasses". Last week's column made a great (tongue-in-cheek) case for changing the order of things so that we could just go to the supermarket and "buy" such mood qualities as contentment or happiness when we are feeling blue or overwhelmed.
After a most interesting, sometimes funny defense of such an impossible idea, the author finally comes to the conclusion quoted below. (Actually she knew it all along, but was just using an enjoyable, unusual way to help her readers come to the same realization.) Now if she were you, Julie, she might have just listed any number of the items named in her article on her own list of "One Thousand Gifts"! ~~[smile]~~ I thought you'd enjoy this excerpt from her work. You will be able to pick out some of the phrases that would be a good fit for anyone's list of one thousand gifts. So here's the excerpt of final paragraphs from this creative article by Elaine Rohse, as written from her hammock:
"It is a summer day. I have, oh, so many things to do--house to clean, groceries to shop for, flowers to deadhead. But I'm feeling just a bit down so I go to the store and buy a pound of contentment. And now I am stretched out in the hammock, relaxed, perfectly content despite a dirty house, groceries I should buy, flowers that need tending.
"I am enjoying my day, gazing at the sky, totally devoid of ambition and purpose. I think of how happy I am. And then it occurs to me that I often feel this happy and contented just from little day-to-day things such as a colorful sunset. Conversation with a friend over a cup of coffee. Sitting at home in front of the fireplace on a frosty fall evening.
"And so, perhaps, putting a monetary value on happiness and all those other incorporeal things and making them available as material objects, would spoil everything.
"We should know by now that happiness is not something we buy. Happiness is something we feed and tend and nurture and produce only with great care."
Have a wonderful, rewarding week. I look forward to reading next week's installment of "gifts" on your interesting list. It always makes me smile. It always makes me think.
Remember, "...the joy of the Lord is your strength". (Nehemiah 8:10b) It is also a wonderful gift that needs to be nurtured and tended.
Love, Mom
Julie...just ordered some CD's and came over to read. I LOVE that you're counting gifts!! I hope your MFW-ECC is going well. I am glad to have gotten to meet you, and your family's music ministers to me so much! Blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteJacque