A Year of Gratitude – November 19, 2024

I found my gratitude in the brambles today. This photo might not look like something to be grateful for, but I was thankful all the same.

If you look through these twisted branches, you can see our old barn. Just to the left is the farmhouse bathed in sunlight. While the space where my garden lies is a blur to the camera, I know that it is there.

Penny Lane and I were coming back from our morning walk when I stopped to look at this tree that has leaves still waiting to dry and fall to the ground. It also has new buds on the ends of its branches. Our weather seems to be confusing the trees and plants as much as it has confused me. We’re somehow stuck in late fall and early spring all at once.

As I watched the limbs dance on the wind, my eyes changed focus to the barn and farmhouse in the distance. There’s really nothing like seeing the place you call home, the place that feels like you belong, where the people you love are waiting for you.

Penny wasn’t gazing at the same landscape I was through the trees, she just knew that we weren’t far from home. She started to get impatient with me, dancing around from paw to paw.

I didn’t make her wait long. I wanted to get back home as much as she did. I was glad that we’d been able to take such a fine stroll on a sunny morning in November, a rare gift from Mother Nature. It was time to round the bend and head home, to that place just beyond these trees.

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.