Gratitude like a wave of magnolia blossoms

I realized awe, awe in nature, from the first moment I remember. I knew awe before I knew gratitude because I hadn't yet been shown gratitude, so awe was just inherent in me from birth. And always it was in the woods. The birds, insects, wind, and sea in a symphony in c#minor... I pause and echo with the wolves and the whales in reverence.

I knew compassion always, too, and it was then branded into me by the actions of my mother toward the feathered and fur-footed friends around us in the wooded lot we called home.

I'm a late bloomer to gratitude. I viewed it with an air of perfectionism, and I still do. No jar of cultivation, no post-it notes on mirrors would do for me. Gratitude for me would come when I felt it like a wave of magnolia blossoms wafting in the wind, and it has. When something happens in my world and someone offers aid, I give thanks and my gratitude is a beam that radiates from my being. There is no disappointment in an unexpected event in which someone offers me aid.

    Now, I'm grateful for my sense of awe. I am not proud of it, more just the wonderful times of life it has given me are worth the life itself. I can be in awe of a bird's call, of a swirl of liquid in a suspension, of a well-turned phrase, or of someone delightful introducing themself and striking up an unanticipated conversation.

    So today, it is Thanksgiving Day in the United States of America where I was born and raised and live at the time of this writing. I'm grateful to be seen by people who want to tell me their stories and who want to share ideas. I'm grateful to have a compassionate and capable heart that can heal, listen deeply, and understand the difference between when to wordlessly give aid to a being and when to wait to be invited. 

    I'm grateful for the distinctness of smells, temperatures, and colors, of wind velocities and density, of textures, tastes, and viscosities, of sound, essence, nuance, and timbre. I'm grateful for my senses that synthesize the oneness of these dynamic elements, and for my mind, body, and soul which have somehow come together to learn the beauty of our oneness, each and every one and all.

    In the spirit of oneness, let's each and every one of us practice kindness, honor our own hearts and be grateful for our inherent gifts that allow us to experience the specialness of coming together.

I'm grateful for you. 

See you next time.

Lydia