My 2012 New Year's Resolution
Giving Thanks for Kittens
Give thanks when I wake up in the morning. Give thanks when I go to bed in the evening. And keep what's in-between really simple and really enjoyable.
My New Year's Resolution for 2012 is deliberately designed to be a spiritual sandwich. Thus, when the filling in-between is substandard, the slices of bread (home-made, stone ground flours, rye and ground linseed) either side will save the day.
My way to give thanks first thing in the morning is to sit in Pond Cottage, door open, with a nice cup of tea. Water trickles into the pond from the intake pipe, clutches of garden gnomes sit by the far pond path and gaze over to me, the bellbirds chirp and chime above in the trees.
So I am thankful for the following: cups of tea, my (shed-with-a-bed) cottage, bellbirds, running water, the pond, and garden gnomes. Hee hee. There's so much more! I could take a tent around the gardens and do this early morning ritual in different spots. Imagine the list I would have!
Giving Thanks in the Morning
I give thanks to my garden flowers and foliage - that's easy to do! I have to get up to feed the cats, and so I give thanks for them (and the dog) for sharing my garden with me. I give thanks for Little Mac, our rescued Christmas kitten, whose positive attitude to life (particularly with respect to really big things, really noisy things, and earthquakes) is splendid. I am learning heaps from this tiny kitten.
Giving Thanks for Flowers and Cats
In my journals I often gush the phrase 'I am so lucky'. Or, for added emphasis, 'I am sooooooooooo lucky'. This concept doesn't bear deep analysis, although I really mean that I'm lucky to be alive (enough of that).
Giving Thanks For Roses
I Am So Lucky!
Imagine if I'd missed out on all this gardening? My 'new' recycled roses which show their gratitude with big, blousy blooms, the peas (my summer snacking food) which love growing in my neglected vegetable garden... Maybe giving thanks that one is alive isn't a silly thing at all. Perhaps do it in the evenings, when one feels naturally more humble and fragile. And definitely best not to leave it until it's too late...
At the End of the Day...
Giving thanks at the end of the day can be little trickier if it's been one of those moochy indoor days (watching re-runs of The Bachelor on TV, doing half-hearted housework, and so on). I arrive in the cottage feeling disgruntled, and even putting on my silly frog pyjamas doesn't help. What was I thinking, wasting all those wonderful hours? I'm still as tired as if I'd gardened for six hours. But I haven't done anything. Humph. It's not easy to beam serenely and give thanks when humphing...
SMART New Year's Resolution?
I've just read that a New Year's Resolution should be SMART - 'Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic and Tangible'. Aargh! This acronym was definitely devised by a non-gardener. How about Spiritual, Muddly, Artistic, Random, and Thankful? That feels much better!