Gratitude Monday: sights & sounds

I hope you had a happy and healthy Christmas, if you celebrate. If you don’t, I hope you got some down time that you could enjoy.

My gratitude for today is about the wonders that Nature provides for me on my morning walks, and also for the serendipity that occurs when I shift my focus from the path in front of me so I can truly appreciate them. Two examples from last week:

Thursday I started out a little later than usual, nearly 0700. I’d just about reached the point where I turn right, when I looked up in the sky and saw a shooting star. The first ever I’ve seen on the hoof.

Yes, I know it wasn’t a star; it was a meteor hitting the earth’s atmosphere and going out in a blaze of glory. But it was, in fact, glorious. And had I not been at that point in my circuit and looking up, I’d have missed it. Three more meters and it would have been outside my peripheral vision. But it and I were in exactly the right place at precisely the right time.

(No pix because it literally lasted a couple of seconds.)

The other example is from Christmas morning, as I was pulling into the cluster at the end of my walk. I realized that I was surrounded by a symphony of bird song; those guys were swarming the treetops and singing their beaks off. I did get a couple of clips (in between aircraft heading in to Dulles) for your enjoyment.

Here’s the thing—as with the shooting star, I almost missed the concert, because I tend to use my walking to rehash Things and plan Other Things. But this time I let them penetrate my thoughts and was rewarded mightily for it.

So I’m grateful for the beauty around me, for getting out every morning into it and occasionally paying attention to it.