What shall I think about today, I thought, awoken by the sound of wind banging the wind chime on the window pane, a shadow of the waxwing slain.  I could think about what I thought about yesterday, as most days I seem to.  Work stuff.  No, I thought, stuff work.  I love it, and will be doing it all day, the last in a row of eight teaching, and of course will dedicate many thoughts to that but for now, in the quiet of early morning I take a break, step outside to feel the dew beneath my feet.

Boohoo, no dew…but a beautiful view of the gifts in my garden: the hollyhock, the honeysuckle, and the geranium, all given by friends.  Perhaps we shall grow a garden of gifts.  Now that’s a nice thought.  I shall think that thought and as I do their faces come to mind, friends I know and love, the face of the giver when I see or use a gift.  I look in the mirror as I shave with the brush from my son, a present from the past. And even if it were not there all the time, as it is, appears the face of my Beloved as I get dressed in the clothes she gave me.

Gazing around at the richness of life, past memories and future thoughts, I’m filled with gratitude for the present, for this moment that so often slips by unnoticed in the thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow but now, today, this morning, this moment, I am here, surrounded by gifts, alive and present, and feeling creative, excited by insights inciting these thoughts that feed my soul.

Off to work now, a spring in my step, summer in my heart, new thoughts ahead!