Seal it with Gratitude

Pea Planting, Nature Journaling and a Spark of Joy

Monday morning, after walking to the barn to take care of my chickens, I paused to listen to the Song Sparrow who sings every morning from a hawthorn bush back of the barn.  His joyous bubbling song stopped me in my tracks, and I was compelled to take in the rising sun over the neighbor's pasture, the bounding sparrow's tune, and my rooster's crowing response.  It was the very day of 2014 that the grass turned green on Hawk's Hill.  A pause, a moment to take in my place in the year, and I celebrated with a sun salute, hands planted on the green grass, head down, gazing at the rolling hills and blue sky from an upside-down viewpoint, ears taking in the songs of the sparrow, robins, cardinals and towhees.  A spark of joy glowed within me as I spent that 5 minutes of the day pausing in gratitude.

Sunday afternoon, I taught a nature journaling class at the state park.  The day opened with snowfall, then miraculously transformed into a lovely spring day washed clean with gusty March winds.  The group of enthusiastic participants -- elementary aged children to retired folks -- were completely engaged in the topic at hand, participated fully, and investigated nature with their journals in sketches, prose and poetry -- in spite of the chill in the air.  I look forward to the annual class, and feel lucky to have the opportunity to share my love of art, writing and nature with kindred spirits.

On the drive home through the wooded park, I felt compelled to stop, park my old truck in a fisher's lot, and watch the sun sinking towards the hills and lake.  I needed just a moment of stillness after the bustling activity of teaching.  I pulled out my nature journal, and began to sketch the scene before me -- hillsides leading down to the lake, bare oak tree limbs reaching up to the blue sky, the lake water free to carry the motion of the wind.

A Sunday-afternoon sketch (from a rain-wrinkled page in my nature journal).

The craggy caw of a crow alerted me to a wild show going on in the trees above me.  A red-tailed hawk winged over my head, pursued by several crows, then the procession whisked over the ridge behind me, and I was left sitting in my truck, window open, sun striking me broadside and warming me gloriously, with surprising strength. I stole 15 minutes to sit, sketch, bask and watch the natural show before me. And I was left with a deep sense of gratitude -- for the camaraderie of the class, for the visit to the park, for the balm of nature and the opportunity to sketch in my nature journal.

David turns the rich earth

Making labels for rows of peas

Last night, after David turned the earth in our garden, after I planted peas and kale in the loamy, black soil, after hauling rocks around in a garden cart, after making dinner, and cleaning the dishes, as the stars twinkled and David played with his remote control helicopter, I stood outside and watched him fly, and we listened to the Spring Peepers sing down in the valley. Just for a few minutes.  The tiny tree frogs sounded loud as a flock of starlings, but with the delightful rarity of tiny, noble harbingers of spring.  A woodcock twittered and "peent"-ed down in the neighbor's empty field, and I felt that old familiar sense of spring magic, of joy and delight at the miraculous things that nature does after we pass the Vernal Equinox.  Green life is reborn.  Nature awakens, shakes off winter and sings and blooms.

Spring -- especially this late spring -- gets crazy busy with the pressure of tilling, planting, setting up beds with plastic and soaker hoses, with onion plants arriving in the mail, with quick trips to the feed and seed for 50 pound bags of seed potatoes and alfalfa meal, with transplanting tomatoes and peppers indoors, with endless projects that were put off for better weather this winter.  One trick Hawk's Hill has taught me is the magic of taking just 5 minutes to rest, to gather in the scene and to say thank you for the blessings in the present moment.  Like capturing a sunset in a journal, the gratitude encapsulates the magic of the day, sealing it in my memory, and giving me a gem to carry around in my heart to light workdays ahead.

My happy little jigger sowing Sugar Snaps and Petit Pois

May your day be rich with blessings and space to pause and take them in,

Betsy