Gratitude and Glimmers #81

Let another year of being grateful, consciously grateful, begin. It's so true that little aha, or wow moments of gratitude give you a little glimmer, whether that glimmer is a lift to your spirits or a little squeeze of your heart or a secret smile. You can find more posts from like-minded grateful peeps at Not Afraid of Color.

1. Dogs are the BEST! Cats are a close second, but sorry Bella and Harper, they do come second. I love dogs, and am proud and honoured to say I have been and still am owned by several of these beautiful souls over the 43.5 years of our marriage. We actually got our first dog, Rex, about two months before we were married, and he lived with my husband for a bit, and with me at my parents for a bit before we were married. Anyhow, THIS--?!!! You will be amazed and moved by Ruby who saved her master's life.

2. A big one for me this past month was reading this article on CBC about finding another ancient lost city, this one beneath the rain forest in Ecuador. Scientists use a really cool technique called LiDAR (light detection and ranging) to basically MRI the earth from an airplane to see what is beneath a rain forest. I first heard of this technique when I read The Lost City of the Monkey God with my U of Alberta book club. The team in the book found the city that had basically eluded scientists and explorers for well over a century using this technique. When I get down about the state our world is in, climate-wise and politics-wise, my husband often says the planet will be okay; humans maybe not so much. Well, these lost civilizations are proof of just that: the fragility of humankind and the strength of Mother Nature. 

3. I am turning my leader/ender pinwheels (made from the little triangles I cut off when joining the binding strips with a mitred seam) into blocks. I turned it over to check that the seams were pressed to one side and saw this:

I just love those tiny little pinwheels that show up on the back when spinning seams. Seeing five of them all nicely lined up gave me a little glimmer of pleasure.

4. Even at 15, Brady still gives me glimmers on a regular basis. We are both watching The Lightning Thief on Disney+ and each week we FaceTime to talk about it. I bought him the set for his 14th birthday when he had first told me he was reading a borrowed copy from his friend, and really enjoying the book. I taught The Sea of Monsters in my Grade 7 Language Arts classes. They loved the unit that I and the teacher-librarian developed for it, sending them to 'camp', learning how to write their name in the Greek alphabet, and so on. Well, another glimmer happened this week, nothing to do with The Lightning Thief. He loves cooking, and has been making some pretty amazing suppers for Brianne and him. This week he made mashed potatoes, snap peas and chicken. He gave Brianne a taste sample of the mashed potatoes, and when her reaction was one of amazement, he said, and I quote, "I orchestrated it so you would get a kick of salt, mellowing out into the spice from the black pepper." What a kid! He was raised on cooking shows, and clearly has absorbed the lingo into his cooking psyche! It makes me wonder what gems of phrases he said in his Foods class this year!

5. Rufus never fails to give glimmers of joy.

On Tuesday he was so happy that the socks Dayna gave him for Christmas (yes you read that right: this sock-thief dog got his very own pair of socks to love on) that had frozen solid to the deck rail with the tumbling temperatures and snow of last week thawed with the rain and above-freezing temperatures of the past couple of days. He grabbed them right off the rail, and took off in glee. I got some of that glee on video; this still of one frame that made me snort.

6. I’m reading another new-to-me author, Richard Osman. Helen in Ireland @helendoesthings had posted one of his and so I checked to see if our library has them, and they do. In fact, my town’s branch had the first one I. The series, The Thursday Murder Club, so I got it out while I wait for the next one in The Crown of Thorns and Roses series to come in. It’s a hoot.

7. I’m very grateful for my part-time yoga job, for the like-minded people who come to my classes, for the positive energy our group exudes. Even though I’m not practising while I teach, but guiding, I still come away with a deep peaceful feeling, and that’s thanks in a big part to the Yin practice itself, as it is a deeply healing practice, but also to that lovely energy from the students. 

8. I love seeing what people do with my designs. Deborah bought my House Block tutorial and turned it in this quilt!

Used with permission

She used a feature fabric instead of the stars on the side of the house and then alternated with star blocks using those roosters again. Great idea!

LeeAnna had asked the group if our family plays games. My husband and I used to play Crib when we were first married. I cannot remember how to play but I think we should rekindle that sometime. When we were going out he’d come over and we’d play a variety of games with my siblings: Spoons, a card game, Trivial Pursuit and Yahtzee. We had lots of fun. Nowadays he does crosswords on his iPad and I do the Wordle, the Mini and Connections. I also do the Worldle where you guess the country. I often ‘travel’ there once I’ve figured it out, looking at the terrain and cities etc.