Wednesday Eclipse Watch and Gratitude List

Eclipse watch 5 a.m.:  so far, no signs of eclipse yet.  We had a much better vantage point in the Spring.  This year, the eclipse will coincide with sunrise.

But what a gorgeous moon!  My backyard neighbor needed coffee, and when I opened the door to take my offering to her, the sight of that moon left me breathless with gratitude for the chance to see it.

What else fills me with gratitude this morning?  Let me list the ways:

--Yesterday, I not only got an autumnal bouquet for the inside of the house, but 2 pots of mums for the outside.  The mums were striking:  burgundy on the outside of the petal, yellow towards the middle.  They were $8.99 a pot, which is about what I spent on flowers for last year's porch decorating project.  I decided to splurge.

--The pots that I got on Memorial Day week-end are flush with flowers too.  I suspect it's their last hurrah as annuals.  But I'll enjoy it now.  I have an arch of summer flowers and one of autumnal blooms.  It makes me happy all out of proportion.

--I got a few packets of poems in the mail yesterday.  Hurrah!

--I've been up several hours.  Some days this fact might have distressed me, but this morning, I've been grateful for solitude and writing time.

--I've been working on a piece for the Living Lutheran site.  It explores the pumpkin and the pumpkin patch as metaphor for God and God's work and God's community.  I've felt delighted by this writing, which I don't always feel these days.  It's good to get that feeling back.

--I woke up feeling slightly guilty about my not-so-nutritious eating yesterday.  But I'm grateful that it's not worse.   Instead of fast food, I ate 2 commercial granola bars.  Instead of a regular meal, I ate more cheese and crackers than advisable.  And bacon, leftover bacon from what my spouse fried up for himself.  It could have been worse.  I did not eat the big Cadbury bar that I bought yesterday.

--And I had 2 very good workouts yesterday, which will mitigate the extra calories somewhat.  I'm feeling grateful for my middle-aged body which can still do so much.  I am stronger than I think.  I had that moment of realization yesterday as two different instructors complimented me on my ability to power through a tough work out.

Eclipse Watch 5:35 a.m.:  the clouds feather across the surface of the moon, obscuring it and beautifying it.  I'm fairly sure there's no signs of the eclipse yet.  It's a great metaphor, but one I've played with before, in this post, which also has a poem.