November 10 and 11

It is a pity to have missed last night, because there was much to be grateful for yesterday.  But there was also a movie to be watched via Amazon Prime, and that meant my laptop being hooked up to the TV and not on my lap.  It also meant a backrub and a snuggle from my wonderful husband, and I am grateful for that!

What else?

I am grateful for the heavenly sun this weekend, two days of warmth and the rustle of dry leaves raising their scent into the sunlit air. 

I am grateful for a lovely morning with my mom, for picnic lunches at Rocky River Park, for exploring the driftwood-strewn beach with my son, building boats and searching for treasure.

I am grateful that my children stayed in childcare at the church, so my mom and I could discuss and share and philosophize about the meaning of a secular Christmas and what one can do to fight rampant consumerism and teach our children compassion...

I am grateful to meet these like-minded people who share in this struggle to find a way to live our values.

I am grateful for birthday parties, for gatherings of friends and families and children with balloons and streamers and alphabet cards.  I am grateful for Naomi and Lillian, who are, impossibly, three years old.  I am grateful for the new dimension and joy they have brought to our family of friends, and for the real little people they are becoming.

I am grateful for morning walks at Forest Hills Park.  A park that is going to seed-- it is a wonderful thing, really.  Forgotten paths and fields and playgrounds, all to ourselves. I  am grateful for a joyful spaniel, leaping and chasing.  I am grateful for children heading bravely to explore, clambering over fallen trees.  I am grateful for the contagious joy of drums and chimes and xylophones, an unexpected treasure discovered on our way home.

I am grateful for soup, for friends trekking to our home, for the way the house smells all day, warm and sheltering and good.  I am grateful for my husband who cooks, and makes it all possible, really.

I am grateful for leaf piles and sunstreaked windows and a clean playroom.

I am grateful for the company of good friends, for companionable silences and tea. 

It has been a wonderful weekend.  I am grateful for each moment of it.