A Year of Gratitude – August 9, 2024

My gratitude came to me with a sound that I overheard today. I was working at my computer when I heard footsteps on the back staircase that leads into the farmhouse kitchen.

I have always loved that sound. When my children were little, they felt like that staircase was their special staircase. It leads into the portion of the farmhouse near their bedrooms. As little children, there was a magical quality to those stairs, as if they had been built just for them to use.

These days, there aren’t any little children to use those stairs any longer. Yet when I hear the sound of feet making their way down from the second floor into the kitchen, I associate it with that sound from so long ago. It’s such a happy memory.

Today, I heard them descend into the kitchen and then I heard the sound of the glass lid on the cookie jar being lifted. That has to be among my favorite sounds. It’s the sound of someone I love helping themselves to a homemade cookie. I keep that cookie jar stocked so that they will never find it empty.

When I hear that sound of the glass cookie jar being opened, I feel my heart swell. I don’t need a reminder of how fortunate I am to live in this old farmhouse with the people I love so dearly, but I got one today purely by overhearing sounds in the next room.

It was a subtle reminder even if it was unneeded. You can’t be reminded too often of the reasons you have to be grateful. Like the cookie jar, your gratitude has to be refilled so that you don’t lift the lid and find it empty.

What are you grateful for today?

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.