quiet
Musings: Gratitude
Today is Thanksgiving Day. Richard and I are on our traditional Thanksgiving week vacation. We own a small time share in Orlando and it has become our custom to take the Thanksgiving week and enjoy a break away from all the chaos that leads up to the Holiday Season.
It’s a pretty standard time share condo: a lounge/dining area with a small compact half kitchen, a decent size bathroom with a shower in the tub which has some whirlpool jets, and a bedroom with a nice comfortable king-size bed and the prerequisite double closet and chest of drawers. There are two TV’s and a boom box and all the necessary accoutrements for cooking, cleaning, and ironing. The furnishings are nice with small touches of tasteful décor, but nothing extravagant.
However, there is one item of pure luxury as far as I am concerned. We have a large screened-in balcony that accommodates a table and four chairs and there’s still plenty of room to move around. This is my “lanai away from home” and where I spend the vast majority of whatever time we do not spend running out and about. Over the past few days I have sat out here and written about one hundred and forty Christmas cards, remembering friends far and near as I always do at this time of the year.
This is where I come first thing in the morning to have my quiet time with God and do my reflection readings and pray and meditate. This is my small sanctuary where I find safe haven where I can reaffirm or reclaim my inner peace and gratitude for all my blessings. I also bring my laptop out here to do my writing, as I am doing at this very moment. I feel like this is a special gift from God to me.
As I sit here on the lanai I look out over a small artificial lake with a fountain set in the middle. The lake is surrounded by other condo buildings but they are spaced out enough that we are not crowded. There is lush green grass everywhere dotted with flowering trees and shrubs, and pathways offer the opportunity to walk or jog everywhere.
Today is a glorious sparkling blue day – a Princess Di kind of day. The sun is shining brilliantly and shimmers on the water in the lake. There are a few white clouds softly smeared across the sky and the temperature is warm and inviting. I’m thinking about going for a walk and a swim. There is a balmy breeze blowing and the palm fronds wave lazily as it moves through. The smaller leaves on other trees are fluttering like myriads of green butterflies and everything seems to be in gentle motion. Along the banks of the lake a small blue heron is gracefully and stealthily stalking a prey that only he can see.
I sit here and feel the sun warming me to the very depths of my bones and I am so very grateful for all of this, that is so much more than my basic needs. I am grateful for food on my table and a roof over my head. I am grateful for fresh-smelling soap to wash myself with. I am grateful for a closetful of clothes (mainly purple!!) that I can chose from. I am grateful for a loving, kind, patient husband (he needs to be patient with this purple creature he has married!).
I am grateful for the whole of my life, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Yes, there are some bad and ugly parts to my life and yes, I am grateful for them too. They serve as humble reminders that I still have more work to do to improve. I am grateful that today I can recognize, admit and accept that I am not perfect and that there is room for growth. Amen!!!
Musings: The Changing Seasons
In the last few weeks leading up to the change of clocks, I would go out to my lanai and claim my God-time. One day I realized, that even though I had gone out at the same time as usual – about seven o’clock – the morning light had changed. In fact it was not fully light but rather that eerie time of in between when the sun has not quite risen but there is a pallor about the sky.
That was the first time I allowed myself to even consider that summer was ending and autumn was pushing through the door. I sat and watched, and listened. There was absolute silence. Normally as I go out there in the morning, squirrels are rustling through the trees and the birds are beginning to awaken with soft twitters and small trills. But on this morning I noticed the total quiet.
Although I accept the changing of the seasons, after all there’s very little that I can do to stop them changing, I do not like it. In sixty six years, however, I have learned that lesson. I think much of my non-acceptance stems from my British upbringing. In England, once whatever precious little summer that we got was over, then we were always assured of grey cold autumn coming in, followed by an even greyer and colder winter. Grey dooms my heart and soul. I get de-pressed and sad, and I’m just not my usual bright sunny self.
So even though I live in Florida now and the summer blurs into autumn, and winter usually is not so cold (let’s forget about last winter,shall we!!!) and definitely not so grey, I still have an imbedded expectation around this particular change of season, that the grey is about to descend upon me. I am grateful to be living here because I soon realize that autumn-into-winter is not synonymous with grey and cold. In fact, in the almost seven years that I have been here, I remember sunbathing frequently in the “winter” months and reveling in the fact.
So, as I was saying, in these past few weeks I have watched the morning light grow dimmer each day, even though I have gone out there at about the same time. Then, suddenly, about ten days ago I realized that there was barely a glimmer of light. I sat there and had to squint my eyes to make out shapes and forms in the un-light. But then I had the unexpected pleasure of watching the dawn light creep across the sky and in those pre-sunrise moments I began to make out smaller shapes and forms, and the details of leaves, flowers, trees, gazebo, slowly filled themselves in.
Then, in one glorious instant, a shaft of bright light came across the side garden fence and illuminated a slice of the picture in front of me. The trunk of a tree, a few branches, a small angle of the top of the gazebo, all became as clear as if in a naif painting. Moment by moment, my back yard and the woods beyond were suddenly lit up like the opening scene in a live theater. Almost immediately the rustling, the soft twitters, and the small chirps began until there was a full-throated burst of bird song.
Thank you God for the joy and the beauty of your creation. No matter what the season, there is always something wonderful, something awesome, to see and marvel over. I hope I always keep my open eyes and my open heart to appreciate the glory that is our world.
Joy: Tis the Season
Joy is such a short simple word for such a full and rich and complicated emotion. How can I describe joy? It has so many facets and so many ways of manifesting in my life. It is most certainly an emotion that fills me up, rather like an exquisite meal fills my tummy.
But joy is not tangible. You can’t see it, except as a reflection in yourself or someone else. And you certainly can’t touch it, or smell it, or taste it. And you really can’t hear it unless it is expressed through someone’s words or laughter. And yet there is nothing quite as magnificent as experiencing joy.
When I sit on my lanai in the morning I am filled with a quiet joy. The feeling creeps gently inside me at that time of the day. I am slowly coming to my senses out of sleep. I am not a morning person and it takes me a while to be fully present in my body.
So I sit and listen to the birds as they too slowly awaken to the day. I smell the fresh air which usually carries the subtle fragrance of the pine trees behind my garden. If the sun is rising I watch it wake the day with rays of light and this always bring light into my heart. This quiet morning time is very blessed as I make my connection with God and invite Him to join me in my day.
Joy can also be a noisy, rambunctious (now there’s an old-fashioned English word!!), eruption of feeling. I know that Rich and I felt that kind of joy as we watched the Dallas Cowboys play victoriously against the New Orleans Saints just a few days ago:-). Nothing quiet about that one as we jumped for joy and punched the air in exhilaration.
Joy can be felt at the sight of an amazing God-created sunset or an equally beautiful sunrise. It can come with the birth of a new baby or in a froth of white wedding gowns. Joy can manifest at something as simple as receiving an unexpected letter or card or hearing the voice of a distant loved one on the other end of the telephone.
And joy is also a warm excitement that radiates from my heart throughout my body as I realize that we are once again at that moment of the year when we celebrate the birthday of our Saviour. As I prepare to go to Mass this evening there is a sensation of anticipation in my heart that has nothing to do with the gifts under the tree. Although they will also produce their own joy upon opening.
Tonight there is the joy of knowing that I am a beloved child of God. Of knowing that God loved me so much that He gave me the ultimate gift of His only Son, Jesus. And then realizing that Jesus, in his turn, loved me so much that he made the ultimate sacrifice that I might know Him and be with Him eternally. Tonight is the ultimate night of joy.