Gratitude Day 10

Thinking of things to write about-things I'm grateful for-every day has been a real eye opener for me. Normally, I go through my days with my eyes closed, and my mini-van bumper is direct proof of this. Anyway, Day 10 and the perpetual cloud of gloom is slowly being lifted.

Last night I was reading through a journal I kept when I started dating the husband. I found a lose piece of paper that I had pulled out of one of my school notebooks to scribble down some grateful thoughts that I was feeling very impressed upon at that exact moment, and didn't have my journal available.


I wrote down all the little things I was grateful for. I remember this moment, thinking in my mind how all these things were just amazing, were absolutely wonderful. How blessed we all were that Heavenly Father blessed us with not just nature, but BEAUTIFUL nature. I don't think the leaves HAD to be beautiful to help fertilize the earth, to provide shade, to sing in the wind, but they are. I don' t think flowers had to come in such beautiful colors and smells (except for the bee's of course, picky bee's), but they do. I don't think the sun had to filter through the leaves of the trees and create the most beautiful abstract patterns on the most gorgeous green grass, but it does. I think that all of these beauties in the world, in nature, were given specially to us to just enjoy. And boy do I enjoy them.

The other day the kids and I were taking a walk, and Cohen pointed to the Oquirrah Mountains and said, "Mommy, are we going to climb the green mountain?" And I said, "Well, um, not today kiddo." And he pointed to the Wasatch Mountains and said, "Oh, are we climbing the blue mountains?" My heart melted. I would've packed up those mountains and let him bring them home if I could've!! They looked so beautiful in the setting sun. The green, earthly look of the smaller but almost as beautiful Oquirrah mountains. The steel, blue, granite looking Wasatch mountains. It took a child to open up my eyes. He's amazing. More amazing than the mountains.

So today I'm grateful for nature. I have amazing pictures on a camera that's dead, so you'll have to use your active imaginations. Nature is amazing. It's terrifying, and calming, and amazing. Remember the tornado in '99? Rather, tornado'S? Remember the way the sky clouded over within an hour. Remember the deep, dark, purple and blue that covered the atmosphere? Remember the smell, the rain coming down hard out of nowhere? The hail?Remember how scary and wonderful and awesome it was to watch it all happen. I'm not saying tornado's are cool...okay, I am. That was SO COOL! But remember watching something that most of us had never seen before, and instead of feeling that deep pit of fear that maybe we should've been feeling, we were out with our cameras and video recorders watching it?

Nature is amazing. I'm grateful for the beauty and wonder of it today. I hope you go outside today, breathe in the smell of the last linger of summer. Listen to the leaves sing in the wind. Watch the grass dance. Feel the sweet heat of the sun on your skin. Drink in some much needed vitamin D.

Enjoy.