A Year of Gratitude – June 28, 2024

I found my gratitude in the precision of nature today. I stepped outside to do my morning round of farm choresI found my gratitude in the precision of nature today. Looking down at this zinnia stopped me in my tracks. Just look at how amazing the petals of this flower are.  

I stepped outside the farmhouse this morning into glorious sunshine. The air was crisp and cool, a very welcome development. The robins were singing in the tree that sits at the edge of our driveway. It was already a glorious morning and it had just begun. 

I could hear the chickens milling about in their coop. They know that the sound of the mud room door opening and closing in the morning is a sign that I will be arriving to open their coop up to the run and that they are about to be set free for the day. 

I pulled their door to the pen aside and they began hopping down the ramp one by one in a single file line. They’re quite orderly about it, following each other without rushing the hen in front of them. I gave them their morning scratch and watermelon rind from the watermelon salad from last night’s dinner. I left them behind as they scratched around, making their happy hen sounds.  

Our kitchen garden is adjacent to the coop. I stepped through to see what was growing, what might need attention, and if any garden pests had visited to help themselves to the garden buffet. As I walked through the path, I spotted the zinnia I have been watching for the past week. It’s the first zinnia bloom we have this year and I can’t wait to see those brightly colored petals. It just doesn’t seem like summer until there are zinnias in the garden. 

This zinnia is in the in between phase of blooming. The bud has opened, but the petals are just finding their way. They’re still tightly curled around themselves, each one of them seemingly formed around an invisible structure, making every petal both unique and yet just like the one next to it. 

You can see a glimpse of the colorful petals that are hiding inside. This flower is going to be a beauty. I can see it already. In fact, it is already beautiful just as it is. There’s beauty in its orderliness, in the repetition of the furled petals. I’m so glad that I was able to enjoy it at this stage, to see it in the in between. It won’t stay this way very long and it would have been a shame to miss it. 

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.