November Gratitude
Happy November! Where did October go?! Hard to believe that we’re heading into the holiday time of the year, with Thanksgiving soon approaching, and Christmas on its heels.
Over the last several years, I’ve been designating November as a month for gratitude. A friend of mine started the tradition in her own blog, and I thought it was an excellent idea. I’ve found that there are days when I really have to dig deep to find something to write about. I suppose on those days I make it more of a chore than it has to be, as there are so many little things to be grateful for. It doesn’t always have to be something BIG. I’ve been writing down my thoughts each day, so that I could share them here. My plan is to continue to give thanks for something each day.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1st
Today, I am so thankful for the view I have from the windows of my home. As I sit here typing on my laptop, I am looking directly out the big picture window in our family room. The window is 4′x4′ and is the perfect frame for the slender birch and cottonwood trees in the side yard. There are also a sprinkling of spruce in that direction, but most are spindly. The birch and cottonwood form a natural privacy fence between our house and the neighbors.
Right now, the boughs of the spruce are spotted with snow. Some of the smaller birch saplings are already leaning with the weight of snow. As more snow comes, they will continue to lean, until the upward tips bend completely to the ground. It’s amazing to watch them bend without breaking. The squirrels use them as a super highway to the higher branches when that happens.
From my kitchen window - a smaller 30″x30″ - which is located above the kitchen sink, I can look out into the back yard. This is where I am usually standing when I see the snowshoe hares hop through the yard. It’s from this window where I saw the fox the other day. I love having a window over the kitchen sink.
In my kitchen window, I have a red stained glass piece hanging. I made the piece in a beginners class back in 2004. In the winter, when the sun is low in the sky, the morning light shines through the glass and duplicates it on the floor. Light is so precious in the winter up here. Colored light is a delight for the senses in a black and white world.
Our sliding glass doors also look out on our back yard, as does the big picture window in the bedroom. From those large expanses of glass, I can watch the aurora dance in the sky without going out in the cold. I can watch moose wander through my yard. I can watch the sky turn pink and orange during our long winter sunrises and sunsets.
I love these ‘windows on the world’. I love having enough glass to bring the outside in. But most of all I love what I see through them.
