Friday Gratitude

Night - I am a night owl. I love the night sky. I love the energy that comes with the night for me. I don't think I could live very happily in dark environment. I do need sun. I just enjoy the night a little more.
Novels - I have been on a fiction kick lately and read many novels. I love the stories. I love that they slow down my brain and let me escape into the story for a little bit of time.
Naps - They are so nice! I especially like having naps with Michael. Snuggling up to him and just feel the warmth of his skin next to me. So comforting. So safe.
Noise - Although I love silence....just sitting in the quiet late night hours or early morning...I also like noise. When I am doing art work, cleaning and such I need noise...tv or music. And I enjoy that sound while being busy. Makes me feel not so alone - like I have company while doing those things.
Nature - Although nature really doesn't like me....I do like it. The trees, the leaves changing....the flowers blooming in the spring. The beautiful mountains of Colorado. The desert cliffs...red earth...tumbleweeds and just the vast open space of it. (Nature doesn't like me as I have lots of allergies that come from nature.)
Nose - to smell things with! Dinner simmering on the stove top, cookies coming out of the oven, a rose, fragrant wine, clean sheets on the bed, freshly mowed grass, cinnamon rolls out of the oven, vinegar - being a clean smell for me - because my Mom (and now I do too) clean with it, freshly popped popcorn that my Dad was making into popcorn balls as he loves them....so many good smells I am very thankful I have nose to smell them with!
Now - I try very hard to be aware of the present. To live in the now. So now is a pretty important word for me. And I am thankful for all the now gives me.
Next - And from the last word comes the this one...next. I am thankful what comes next. Although I live in the now, I enjoy the next. I think of with this word something from West Wing..."what's next?" In that context it was okay we have resolved this...what's next. Let's keep going forward. And so although I live in the now I do want to keeping going forward - to the next.
Notes - Notes..I make notes and lists. But I also like the little notes that I leave Michael to make him smile. Just recently he found one that I had really really buried in one of his equipment bags. He had to go out of town on a work assignment and I couldn't go with him so I did a ton of little notes all through out every bag he brought with him. The one he found had 2 little kitties that I colored and a princess tiara and then said the kitty cats and I miss you! I like leaving those little notes to make Michael smile. So I am thankful for notes that I make and leave.
Nourishment - I am thankful for the various forms of nourishment I get not only in food but connection with others, learning new things, creating art, meditating, exploring and all the other various forms of nourishment that come into my life and feed me.

(cropped image of Midwest atc)