March 26: Grateful
Kristen Lindquist
Footprints melting in snow--
thank you card sent late
better than not at all.
thank you card sent late
better than not at all.
Book of Days
BOOK OF DAYS: A POET AND NATURALIST TRIES TO FIND POETRY IN EVERY DAY
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Filtering by Tag: gratitude
November 22: Thanksgiving
Kristen Lindquist
Things I am thankful for (so far) today:
Being awakened by my affectionate cat
Blue sky
the New York Times crossword puzzle
Walk up Beech Hill with my mother, sister, and two nieces
Two mice mating, playing, or otherwise squabbling in the weeds, trailside
My niece's fascination with bayberries
The scent of crushed bayberries
My other niece's joy in banging two rocks together
Distant red of autumn-burnished blueberry fields
Good health
Free time for my husband to write
A little free time for me to write too
Not losing the Thanksgiving turkey, brining on my parents' porch this morning, to a fox
Crows on the lawn
Cat's amusing attempts to jump through the windows at birds and squirrels
Prayer flags and dry leaves
stir in the breeze,
share blessings.
Being awakened by my affectionate cat
Blue sky
the New York Times crossword puzzle
Walk up Beech Hill with my mother, sister, and two nieces
Two mice mating, playing, or otherwise squabbling in the weeds, trailside
My niece's fascination with bayberries
The scent of crushed bayberries
My other niece's joy in banging two rocks together
Distant red of autumn-burnished blueberry fields
Good health
Free time for my husband to write
A little free time for me to write too
Not losing the Thanksgiving turkey, brining on my parents' porch this morning, to a fox
Crows on the lawn
Cat's amusing attempts to jump through the windows at birds and squirrels
Prayer flags and dry leaves
stir in the breeze,
share blessings.
October 30: Flood
Kristen Lindquist
Since childhood I've had recurring nightmares about water--rogue waves about to carry me under, storms creating waves so high they creep up over the bank and across the lawn to carry away my grandparents' house, roads or paths flooded and impassable so I'm stranded with water all around me... You'd think that since I'm a water sign, a Pisces, I'd have a better subconscious relationship with water. But no.
So when I was looking at photos this morning of the flooding and destruction caused by Sandy in New Jersey and New York--cars completely submerged on city streets, houses surrounded by waves, impossibly high waves crashing over sea walls onto shorefront houses, commuter tunnels filled to the top with water--it was like seeing my worst dreams come to life. The images produced such a visceral reaction in me, I had to stop looking. My heart goes out to those people for whom such images are not just bad dreams but reality. And as I listen to the rain fall--nothing torrential, no high winds--I am tremendously grateful to have had it so easy here on the Maine coast, and that all those I love are safe.
It all washes away
so easily.
So when I was looking at photos this morning of the flooding and destruction caused by Sandy in New Jersey and New York--cars completely submerged on city streets, houses surrounded by waves, impossibly high waves crashing over sea walls onto shorefront houses, commuter tunnels filled to the top with water--it was like seeing my worst dreams come to life. The images produced such a visceral reaction in me, I had to stop looking. My heart goes out to those people for whom such images are not just bad dreams but reality. And as I listen to the rain fall--nothing torrential, no high winds--I am tremendously grateful to have had it so easy here on the Maine coast, and that all those I love are safe.
It all washes away
so easily.
September 11: Bounty
Kristen Lindquist
A friend spent today grinding, juicing, and otherwise preparing for long-term storage 122 pounds of tomatoes. When she and her husband came by to pick us up for dinner, she brought in a big basket laden with vegetables, including tomatoes looking like red pumpkins, beets, carrots, and a torpedo onion. This was a good year for gardens, and they're now reaping the harvest. I've also enjoyed several of their musk melons and watermelons this summer. And my freezer is still well stocked with strawberries picked several months back.
We went to dinner at a new little Asian restaurant in town, Long Grain, where I had exquisite steamed dumplings filled with a perfect combination of minced pork, shrimp, and seaweed. Despite the exotic ethnicity of the cuisine, the menu says they use produce from local farms whenever they can. After dinner, we got Round Top ice cream cones down the street. Thinking about all this locally grown and/or produced food makes me feel so grateful that not only do I not need to worry about where my next meal is coming from, but odds are it's going to be a good one. I am aware that for many, many people in this world that is not the case--which makes me feel that I should take care to especially enjoy that which I could so easily take for granted: good food and gifts from a friend.
Is it wrong to find
such comfort in tomatoes
on this tragic day?
We went to dinner at a new little Asian restaurant in town, Long Grain, where I had exquisite steamed dumplings filled with a perfect combination of minced pork, shrimp, and seaweed. Despite the exotic ethnicity of the cuisine, the menu says they use produce from local farms whenever they can. After dinner, we got Round Top ice cream cones down the street. Thinking about all this locally grown and/or produced food makes me feel so grateful that not only do I not need to worry about where my next meal is coming from, but odds are it's going to be a good one. I am aware that for many, many people in this world that is not the case--which makes me feel that I should take care to especially enjoy that which I could so easily take for granted: good food and gifts from a friend.
Is it wrong to find
such comfort in tomatoes
on this tragic day?