Good morning, luvs. 🙂 I woke this weekend to a winter wonderland! I’ve only seen snow a couple of times this season, so it made me smile. Then I hunkered down under the covers and spent a glorious morning reading and drinking tea.
I live in a teensy apartment in a rather scary part of town but I do so love the views from my windows. They make the occasional crazy neighbor and subsequent police investigations bearable. 🙂
How was your weekend? Mine was a mixture of bliss and ugh.
Bliss was celebrating my friend’s wedding Friday night with many dear friends. We cried along with the groom as he tried to get through his vows, laughed hard at the wedding speeches, and danced with joyous abandon. Bliss was also having a cozy Oscars-Homemade Soup, Cheese and Crackers-Really Good Wine evening with more dear friends.
Ugh because I was sick, so very sick on Saturday and Sunday. But even that was made tolerable by my lovely friends Nicole and Marie bringing me homemade cranberry bread and a stack of historical novels to cheer me up.
As I lay in bed, I thought about gratefulness, and how hard it is to think of good things when I’m in pain and feeling so sad and wretched. So I wrote a list of good things, lovely things that put the little trials of my life in perspective. It helped so much.
I started reading “Awareness” by Anthony de Mello again. It never fails to jolt me out of self-pity and help me to wake up and be grateful and brave.
I love these thoughts on gratefulness by Melodie Beattie:
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.
It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
So I woke this morning with a renewed hope. My pain is still here but my heart is lighter, and I feel blessed beyond measure.
What little things are you grateful for today?
How was my weekend? I was ironing a lot!!! 🙂
2.5 hours of ironing is definitely a LOT, Zita. 🙂 Hopefully you won’t have to do it again for a while. 🙂
However down you have been feeling you have managed to find these glorious photos to share with us and cheer our day. I am having a trip down memory lane at the moment so am grateful for all the old photos that are helping me relive these memories!
Your beautiful, wise post truly lifted my spirits today… Thank you so much for the gift of your beautiful words and insights. I’m grateful for the signs of spring outside my window, for the chickpeas soaking on my counter-top, and for this post you wrote!
i want snowwwww. we were supposed to get some and didn’t. sigh. and weddings, aren’t they kind of strange? i’m now of an age that people from school, etc., are starting to get married. it kind of freaks me out.
I’m sick too, it’s not fun!!! What a gorgeous sky in that pic! It’s so strange to look at how much snow you have when it’s almost 80 degrees here today. It’s so important to remember to reflect on things you are grateful in your life, especially when you’re sick and feeling sorry for yourself (like in my case).
Wow, beautiful! I love snow.
Cheers and have a great week,
Rosa
I had a wonderful weekend, doing lots of cooking, having friends over for dinner, hot yoga and then I saw an old friend tonight for the first time in a couple of years. it snowed here a lot too, which I love, but the only bad thing was that I had wet feet all day from slogging through all the slush. Lovely pictures!
Gorgeous Gorgeous photos!! I know I have said it many times but I have to say it again, and again, and again.
That is quite a view! How can you not feel grateful for life when you look out and see something so gorgeous? Today, I’m grateful that I’m continuing to live the dream life I always wanted: traveling and getting to know the world around me. Thanks for helping me see that!
The blazing sky in the photo reminds me of renewal. As a day ends another one begins, full of hope and possibilities. x
I love trips down memory lane too, Linda. 🙂 I’m so glad you’re having such a good time doing it. 🙂
I’m so glad, dear Astra. 🙂 I have chickpeas at home too! Turned mine into a soup with berebere. 🙂
They can be very strange, Rhiannon. 🙂 But this one was so jolly and filled with many hilarious moments. 🙂
I’m so sorry you’re sick too, Andi! Sending you a big hug and wishes for swift healing. 🙂
I do too, Rosa! It was so nice to have it, if only for a day. 🙂
Your weekend sounds absolutely blissful, Mary. 🙂 I love catching up with dear old friends too.
Thank you, Ellie! I’m so glad you like them. 🙂
You are so welcome, Connie. I’m very happy that you are able to live such a beautiful life. 🙂
I love that, Corinne. Reminds me of Miss Stacey in Anne of Green Gables: “Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it.” 🙂
Your view is lovely. And your less than ideal apartment is so you you can TRAVEL, right? 🙂 Sending you some light to lessen your pain.
Today I’m grateful for just being quiet this evening, maybe even watching some TV…., I don’t think my TV & I have had a date night in about 3 weeks., so I’m pretty grateful for that. It’ll be so good to just switch off, I think I’m a little people’d out 🙂
PS: Your photos are magical.., loved ’em 🙂
I love the first tow vastly different photos of the same view. Very metaphoric. Thought you were going to be in Australia by now and for good?
🙂
Valerie
I”m grateful for stillness today. Its a hard thing for me to appreciate most times, unless I”m off in some wonderful beautiful majestic place, choosing to be still for a while. But when you’re sick and everything around you is “normal,” it’s more difficult to rest in it. I am trying to realize the security in stillness. That we don’t have to be moving or doing to be valuable. There is worth and beauty just in your presence. No matter what or who is around you. A sick day today is allowing me time to write and send some pictures to folks.
gratefulness is indeed a secret ingredient in a joyous life! I am reading Ann Voskamp’s, One Thousand Gifts, on exactly that… you might enjoy it <3