Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Gratitude, Day Four - This Moment

Because I am as contradictory as the next woman, I am as grateful for the here and now - this moment - as I am for the changing of the seasons. If only I could always really be there for the moment while it is happening.

In this moment, Jesse is jumping on the trampoline with his friend Logan, who spent the night last night. I can hear them squealing in delight, filled with joy to be with one another, and without their brothers - for the moment.

While drinking this sip of strong, locally roasted organic coffee, with cream, I take in the very wide, walnut(?) antique desk that is holding this mac laptop. The ivory terrycloth robe I'm wearing is warm, and newly washed. There are too many other things on this desk. This desk was my mom's. oops, could be going back to other moments..

My gratitude for the present is deep because I know how much it can change, in the next moment and way before the end of the season.

Almost two years ago (well, Philomena and Chris' daughter passed on two years ago this week), two friends of mine lost their daughters. They got me to get the gratitude even more.

Diana, one of the friends, created this card about gratitude that I have sitting on my hallway table for all to see as they enter the house. I love the reminding factor of this beautiful picture and the moment it will forever be:

They may be thinking about a former moment when they lost their father/husband. They could be looking ahead to other loss. It sure doesn't look like it. I feel pretty convinced that they are just fully tasting, breathing and feeling the falling snow, together - in that moment. Thanks, Diana, for letting me share this here.

Many, many moments (720 to be exact, so far) have occurred between the writing of this post and the publishing. I got so wrapped up in this moment that I found myself almost late to pick up my father, at a garage twenty minutes away, which meant I had to get out of that robe and into a car with the boys, in a "NY minute"; and before I knew it, many good moments had taken me away from the one I wanted to be continuing here. I loved that timeless moment this morning. May I notice them all more.

4 comments:

Molly said...

I'm thankful for a good cry. What a touching story. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with many happy and tasty moments.

Jessica said...

This was so wonderful. I LOVE that picture!!

Tamar Orvell said...

Nothing like the death or other kind loss of a loved one, especially, to learn the lesson on the blessing of being in the moment... and savoring it even long beyond the moment. Thanksgiving, we went around the table mid-eating, sharing memories of previous Thanksgivings. The kids had a tad of a challenge remembering long ago... so they remembered last year. Very cute. The sharing showed how precious the memories we do savor and relive in the telling.

My memory was of last Thanksgiving, in Tel Aviv, where the American-born hostess got on a train (choo-choo, not subway) north to a farm where she purchased a freshly killed turkey. She then got back on the train, south to Tel Aviv, though not before the security guards (not only at airports in Israel...) demanded to know, why the bird? I imagine it is another way to smuggle in a bomb and then to detonate it, blowing up self, bird, passengers, and more. A non-cheery thought though the story was amusing to us, guests, at that Tel Aviv home last year. You do learn to find gallows humor relief in places where death, really annihilation, is a constant staring at you in the face.

Madeline Rains said...

wow. Thanks for sharing that Tamar. We are so innocent (we who haven't fought)in this country, despite our few big experiences with terrorism and war, of what it is like to live in constant awareness of possible violence in the next moment.