I stood in front of my living room window last night and stared in awe at the evening sky. Nothing had prepared me for what I was about to view, especially after being cooped up in my dark bedroom and glued to a computer all day.
My eyes met a blazing orange sky so bright, it nearly took my breath away. The heavens beat with what seemed like a raging fire suspended in time, a brilliance and clarity that I wished would linger much longer than it did. I had not seen such a thing in years, if ever. The colors were full, vibrating, and pulsated with a certain life of their own. In a matter of minutes, it all suddenly dimmed and morphed into a soft blue with mottled patches of rich dusty pink. Still clear but just different. The past scene was now nothing more than an afterthought, nature just doing it’s thing. Though I loved this new sky scene, I still longed for the fiery hues and neon color I saw when I first stepped to the window.
If you don’t know me, I’ll confess that it’s little things like this that stoke my excitement to the point of wanting to shriek like an over-excited toddler pointing frantically in the direction to whatever it is that has captivated my attention. I’ve seen swirly pink skies fringed with the richest lavender. I’ve seen solid dusky white evening skies with nothing but waves of fluffy gray. What’s really neat is I’ve seen these simultaneously, one view on the left side of my window and the other on my right.
I get giddy going to a Farmer’s Market. The last one I visited was on Market Square in lovely downtown Knoxville, TN. I’ve been to it a few times. But this time, I was struck by how beautiful the vegetables were! Gorgeous colors of yellow squash, shiny flawless eggplants, brilliant swaths of red, green, and orange peppers. The excited toddler in me welled up again and I kept pulling at my husband, pointing this way and that, making sure he saw what I did. “We can pick up a few of these things, if you want,” he said. If I want? Of course I want! We made our selections and soon left the market. I still remember the beauty of the vegetables, and I’ll cling to that memory for a long time.
Do you know that every time I see a feather on the ground, I know it’s Archangel Michael telling me that he sees me, knows I’m there, and that he hasn’t forgotten me? At times, I take the feather and place it in a safe spot in my purse. Other times I merely acknowledge the feather with a short prayerful response that though I won’t take the feather this time, I am grateful he took the time to say hello.
When my brother-in-law used to take us out on Norris Lake in his pontoon boat, I marveled at the blueness of the lake water. How could lake water look like ocean blue? Those trips will be a sooner memory than I wish for them to be, because as I write this post, my brother-in-law is on hospice, dying of liver cancer. I know more than anything he would love to be out on his boat on gorgeous Norris Lake, one of the most incredible lakes in Tennessee.
I also remember my surprise at seeing black water for the first time when I took the Waccamaw Adventures tour in Myrtle Beach, SC. I’ll never quite think of root beer the same way ever again, because that’s what it looked like while we were sailing over the churning brown surface. I learned that the soda drink color was due to the tannins from the roots and barks of the trees in the water.
You know what else I like? I like the feel of a hot shower over my skin when I really think I’m becoming so hypothermic that I can’t warm up any other way. I like the smell of the laundry detergent that I use now, the Vanity scent from the Magnolia Soap and Bath Company. I like the smell of dinner when my spouse is cooking. I love the first signs of fall when the days become chilly and crisp. I like waking up to the sounds on a holiday morning when my spouse is getting the luncheon meal ready before we head over to my mom’s place. I like the feel and warmth of my cat as she presses deeper into the nook of my bent knees as we both sleep.
I like the soft moments of staying at home, no plans, and having a day of relaxation. I like the smell of a new car. I like the scent of my favorite perfume (and there are many!) I like the feel of those out-of-the blue moments when I feel what is called peace profound. This feeling steals its way over you and at once you are filled with complete calm and everything seems, for a brief few seconds, perfect with no anger, no fear, and you’re steeped in a feeling of gratitude so strong and precious you don’t want it to end. But yet it does, only to come back another day.
It’s really the small things in life that bring the greatest pleasure, and I have to stop and think a moment at how I’m blessed to vision and experience such beauty, whether it’s in the sky, the vegetables my spouse will soon turn into a savory meal, or the feel of my cat, or the hot burning heat of water when I’m freezing. Or the sight of an angelic feather (it really is angelic). Or the blueness of water.
If you haven’t taken a moment to see how you’re blessed or to acknowledge the beauty of something in nature, take a moment to do that. And these wondrous moments don’t have to be big things we imagine. The irony of it all is that there is no imagination. It’s just being in the moment, witnessing what’s before you, being in the right place at the right time. It’s real. It’s right in front of you. There is power and great in the small, because in and of itself, it’s truly big. So big you can’t wrap your arms around it all. From this moment take a few moments in the week to reflect over all the things that bring you gratitude. For when we live in gratitude, it’s when we find ourselves growing richer beyond belief.