Here’s one thing. I can draw a silly picture, put it in an envelope, and mail it to my father. I thought of this earlier but didn’t want to write it until I actually did it. I DID. My father has Alzheimer’s disease and can’t read anymore, but he watches for the postman everyday and enjoys going out to the box to collect the mail. I think he can recognize right away when there is something from me because I always try to make the envelope crazy colorful with a fun stamp and glittery stickers. I like to imagine his surprised smile when he sees it there in the mailbox.

Considering this question, I went back to a spot in the woods where two years ago I first experienced meditation as an exquisite gift. Where I was invited into silence by the many voices/one voice of a creek flowing over stones.

The covered votive I had left two years ago was still there nestled in a hollow tree stump. The same sitting spot was there — long straight trunk of dead tree fallen horizontally caught by flanking brush a few inches off the ground.

But this day, the shallow creek was not singing, it was frozen solid. No matter, it was lovely to sit in the peace of the place with eyes closed. I’m not sure how much time had passed when I felt a strong vibration begin at the far end of the tree trunk and then move toward and up through my “sit bones” into the base of my spine! Hmmmm.

I opened my eyes and turned my head slowly to see sitting there quite near a fat, gray squirrel. Not churring, chattering, or tail-flicking as is a squirrel’s way but simply leaning back on its haunches regarding me with calm curiosity. Luminous, dark eyes. Each in our own stillness, gazing at the ‘other’ in a sort of timelessness. Then it leapt to the nearby trunk of a standing tree and climbed skyward.

As I reflect on this, a verse from e.e. cummings comes to mind:

we are so both and oneful
night cannot be so sky
sky cannot be so sunfull
i am through you so i

Thank you, Gratefulness Team, for these questions, helping me think and grow. Thank you to all who share here. Peace, all.

Grateful for goofy things 🙂 Reminds me of a marionette puppet I have had and loved since early childhood…. it is Goofy, the cartoon dog! Puppets of all kinds make me laugh. Films of Charlie Chaplin, his sweet wistfulness and dancing antics while the orchestra plays melodramatic music behind. Likewise, vintage cartoons… Steamboat Willie whistling at the wheel, others I can’t think of right now. And old comic strips too like Krazy Kat. It is so good, Aine, to be reminded of gratefulness for all those “who have put the energy of laughter into the world as their gift.” Thank you.