I am reminded of a quote that has deeply shaped my life in the fifteen years since I heard it from the mouth of a sanity-saving caseworker during some really bumpy days of foster parent angst:
Sometimes you have to be thankful for the little things…
because that’s all there is.
And of course, there are never just the little things –
-there are the huge things that we live in and take for granted every day until our view of them suddenly shimmers and we aren’t sure we’ll have them tomorrow:
health,
breath,
family love,
a heartbeat,
mental clarity.
-there are the huge things that half the world scrabbles to find, which we assume to be our right:
clean water
a safe night of sleep for our children,
nourishing, affordable food,
a day of non-violence on a familial or national level,
a warm shelter,
a decent education.
1. Greenest green grass along the creek.
2. Gossamer silk and rusted iron. (Or, horse hair and barbed wire.)
3. White dove in a little gray door.
4. Creekful of stars.
5. Parhelion (aka sundog) over Stone Mountain
6. Brown fields, freshly plowed.
7. And the smallest glory of the day...
When had it happened?
Farmer Neighbor and his six horses had probably finished the plowing only an hour or two before.
Did he notice the shining threads?
Or were my eyes the only ones that smiled while beholding this thinnest, loveliest treasure...
because that’s all there is.
And really, that is enough.
Thank You, says my heart, heavenward.
Thank You, thank You, thank You.
I heard them before I saw them on my late afternoon walk today, crying plaintively, "killdeer, killdeer,"
wheeling high, then circling in to land in the pasture.
Two more reasons for a grateful heart...
I'm gonna keep looking for the little things!
Would you care to join me?)