Thanks Giving -- Giving Thanks

Thinking about "Thanks Giving" and all that those words imply made me think about my "Gratitude" jar.  Filled to the brim with little bits of thankfulness.Wouldn't it be more appropriate to take it from Thanksgiving Day to Thanksgiving Day?  

This shortly passed Thanksgiving I went through the jar I've been filling and read all of the little scraps of paper. 

 Once finished I set up this jar (which is a tiny bit bigger) for filling from this Thanksgiving to next year's Thanksgiving.  

We have all sorts of celebrations and holidays in this country but I do believe that Thanksgiving should be the most meaningful holiday of all.  

My 'thankful' thoughts go to each you for taking the time to read  my words and enter my world even though we have never met in person.

"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy and change ordinary opportunities into blessings."

William Arthur Ward

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that thanks are abundant wherever you are this day.

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder". - Gilbert Chesterton

Its almost impossible

As Thanksgiving arrives I start to think...

...its almost impossible to be thankful enough.  Impossible because there will never be enough time in the day, or the week, or the month, or the years to list all that I have to be thankful for.  I don't believe that I can count high enough to enumerate them all.

My heart often fills with all the deliciousness of my life - but even it isn't big enough to capture all of my blessings.

This of course means that every single day has to be 'thanksgiving day' because to stop counting my blessings would be a disservice to all those who have given them to me along the way.  Thank you! 

"Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received.  Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling.  Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse." - Henry Van Dyke

Thanks and more thanks

 

 

 

My thankfulness for the wonderful world I find myself in these days is boundless.  I can't even count the many blessings that I have around me and within me.  How wonderful to be at a time of life when being thankful is a daily, positive process.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone -- so many of you have become very special to me and I hope to 'meet' even more of you in the coming year.

 

 

"If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. - Gerald Good 

 



Earth's Gifts

As I make my way through life, each day coming one after the other, I gather within all the parts of the earth that support and sustain me. 

I can learn from a tree which has stood here for many, many years.  Learn of patience and fortitude, strength and determination.

I can learn from the rocks -- those that tower above me, giving me a true perspective of where I fit into this wonderful universe.  And those that I hold in my hand - warm from the sun.

I can learn from the water which often makes its boisterous way - quickly and loudly.  At other times it is a trickle - barely dampening the earth beneath it.

I can learn from the sky - so very high above me.  Covering my existence with a beautiful shade of blue.  Showing me the vastness of the universe and my small place within it.

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

"Sometimes I need

only to stand

wherever I am

to be blessed". -

Mary Oliver

Oh So Thankful!

This is what greeted us recently as we parked at the Asheville Arboretum.  Fall at its finest - red/orange maple leaves glowing like the sun.

And around a corner another brilliantly red Maple tree.

We wandered on and found this tree.  I have no idea what it is, but its shape was so perfect.  The leaves were a warm golden tobacco color.

Even the bonsai trees were putting on an autumnal show. 

This group of autumn trees brings with it my Thanksgiving wishes for you - this is a beautiful world.

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns". George Eliot

Its the Little Things

In my humble way I try to celebrate Thanksgiving every day -- after all I have so very much to be thankful for.  As the 'formal' day of thanksgiving approached I got to thinking about the 'little' things in my life that I'm thankful for - the very little things!  What brings joy and delight to me each day in small, easy to overlook ways.  So here are a few that I've come up with. 

This view out my kitchen window, into the forest, and on the window sill three old bottles.  One of the bottles has been stamped with this quotation by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year."  I love that -- as I start out on my early morning walks I recite that quote to myself, under my breath, like a whisper to start the day.  Each and every day.

This 'wall' of ribbons.  These ribbons and fibers grace my studio.  Everytime I walk by they dance in the slightest breeze.  I sometimes think they are reaching out to me - 'use me in your next project', 'no, pick me'.  Their colors, their ephemeral beauty speak to me each day.

These simple 'tools of the trade' - small, sharp scissors - an old spoon, very small, to scoop up recalitrant beads and my lovely 'thread catching bowl.

Oh yes, there are many, many 'big' blessings in my life - family, friends, home, health, the natural world around me and there are the not so visible blessings for which I am very thankful - tranquility, time, joy... too many to list.  But I never want to forget those small, very small joys that please me each day in their own way.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

"One single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer." - G. E. Lessing