The Art of Being Grateful

Friday morning was just the usual rush of showering and preparing for work, then grabbing my travel mug of steaming coffee (thanks, Honey!), and driving off to the office.  On the way, my thoughts were focused on the meetings I had scheduled that day, a class I was going to teach, and trying to calculate how much time I'd have to work on my monthly production goals.  Coming to a stop sign, I was more than a little irritated to see the driver in front of me was turning left, and had left no room for me to pass on the right and make my own turn.  I may or may not have verbally expressed my opinion about the intellectual level of this particular driver when I noticed a small movement in my left peripheral vision.  I turned to see the most incredibly gorgeous old tree, it's enormous canopy a bright yellow autumn splendor made only more spectacular by the warm rays of the rising sun. I noticed then that, here and there, a movement occurred, although there was no wind and the morning was peaceful and still. Then it caught my attention that these were the leaves, reaching that wondrous chemically induced death dictated by the very sun now showcasing their fleeting beauty.  I was really stunned by this vision, seeing the leaves let go and fall into the pile now blanketing the base of this old tree.  I was just incredibly grateful for the opportunity to see this vision of loveliness because it made me stop and just be in the moment.  It made me happy to be alive.  I was only sorry I did not have my camera and half an hour to just sit and take in this loveliness and be able to share it with you.  This is the closest photo on the web I could find (not mine, of course) that somewhat resembled what I was blessed to see.

And this reminded me also that November is the season of giving thanks and being grateful.  For the rest of the year, I have decided I am going to consciously seek out something of beauty every single day, or express my gratitude to someone for something they've done that's enriched my life.  I'll be blogging about this in the days to come, so stay tuned.