Simple gifts

September 4, 2021

Yesterday, someone I know and respect commented simply that she loves my gratitude posts, so I got to thinking that in these present times when it seems all we ever hear is bad news, maybe I ought to step back occasionally from my Biblical musings and look around me. In doing so, I won’t be abandoning my perspective; after all, if I’m thankful for some blessing I’ve received or seen, I am thankful to someone (or Someone). I know the atheist and agnostic can be thankful, too, but it seems a bit odd to me to give thanks when you don’t know who to give it to.

That being said, here’s my thoughts for tonight: “A gift cool, warm, sun-soaked.”

1. This evening, like the past three or four evenings, has cooled down to a pleasant seventy degrees F. The sky which this morning was bright azure blue with only a few wisps of clouds floating overhead, is now completely overcast. I’m sitting on the patio enjoying the stillness in the air and the sound of the peepers and crickets chirping just audibly above the creek’s laughter. After the recent hot days, this evening is a real treat.

2. Linda has been in the kitchen most of the day, cutting and dicing the ingredients for her homemade beef barley soup which she will give to a friend in need. That being done, she just finished baking cookies for our granddaughter who last week began her college career. Izzi won’t get to eat them warm out of the oven, but I’m sure they will be appreciated nonetheless. 

3. Last week’s hot, dry weather has been perfect for our area farmers to get their hay in. Mowed and turned, it cured in the sun till it’s safe to bale and store. Grassy energy, sun-soaked and waiting to release its power to the cows, sheep, horses, and goats who depend upon it through the long, cold winter. 

All three are God’s gifts, two of them directly, and the other through the agency of the loving and giving heart of my wife. The troubles of this world cannot extinguish the simple blessings I receive every single day.