Aware.

"The art of abundance is the art of awareness. It is a way to count our blessings and practice mindfulness in our daily living. Becoming aware of the small, the little, and the least offers us an opportunity to open our hearts to a larger perspective. We learn to value the tastes, textures, scents, sounds, and sights of our lives as they present themselves to us moment by moment.
"Children practice the art of abundance naturally, but often as adults we lose the ability to explore and experience wonder. By choosing to be aware of the gifts life brings, we become lovers instead of critics, believers instead of doubters, and childlike mystics instead of world-weary critics."

*Candy Paull in The Art of Abundance.

Pausing to practice awareness and express thanksgiving…

for a husband who understands romance and practices it daily

for a friendship/marriage that is beyond what I could have hoped or imagined and only gets better with age.

for a hot tub and the relaxation and rejuvenation it brings to us on these dark, cold, long winter evenings.

for the glory of the heavens on said dark, cold, long winter evenings.

for children who understand honor and practice it (most of the time) in the home and without.

for pudgy fisted baby waves and first words “ciao… ciao… ciao…”

for an amazing, amazing job that is a perfect fit for my husband’s gifts and a great yearly evaluation that made him proud and happy and fulfilled thus making me proud and happy and fulfilled.

for an abundance of forever friends, food and fun times.

for peace… in my heart, in my head, in my home.

for heavy crystals of hoar frost that coat creation in a crocheted doily of sparkling wonder.

Father in Heaven I stand in wonder at your amazing grace.

* I stumbled across this quote over at Susan’s place and it just “clicked” so perfectly with where my spirit is at that I couldn’t help lifting it and sharing it with you all.