gratitude

 As I age, I tend to get up earlier and earlier in the mornings. I do not have trouble sleeping and, in fact,  usually fall asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow. Five hours currently seems to be the optimum amount for me.

 Besides being fully recharged after just a couple hours - I savor the early morning (anywhere from about 2:30AM till about 7:45) . It's almost as if I have the world to myself and can do some mental housekeeping without the anxiety of distraction. I can safely assume I will not be assaulted by texts or phone calls; no one really expects me to respond to social network messages or e-mail; my kids and friends don't require my attention. It's peaceful.

 This morning as I was waiting for my ritual americano to brew - I was struck by the abundance of food in our kitchen. My wife likes to keep our fruit tray full with ripe colorful fruit and it was that tray and it's vibrant colors that first caught my attention. I felt compelled to grab my camera a snap a couple pics and once I did; I began to notice, for instance, our convenience store display case refrigerator. It is huge and usually packed with everything from condiments (like 7 different flavors of salad dressing) to left overs from the preceding days, to gallons (usually three or more) of milk: no fat, low fat and skim.

 I began to realize that I had not remembered to feel grateful in a week or more. At first I felt a flash of shame but soon realized that rather than waste too much time focused on shame it would be better to re-focus on what I had just re-membered: gratitude. Within minutes I was nearly overwhelmed (nearly to tears) with the fact that I am blessed with bounty and abundance.