After a few days in New York visiting Sarah and Dan, we came home last night to rain; but we woke to a beautiful morning with an unseasonable temperature of about 60°! This called for enjoying a hot mug of coffee on the front porch rocker. There, I rocked and sipped and thought about the many gifts before me:
a pair of turkey vultures sailing in smooth circles above the trees;
a female red-bellied woodpecker hitching her way down the hickory trunk toward the feeder;
a small flock of goldfinches landing in the hickory's branches where sunshine could find and warm their tiny bodies;
a couple of squirrels running, each carrying in its mouth a nut of some sort;
two chickadees chick-a-dee-dee-deeing from their sunny perches in the magnolia;
and the uncommon opportunity to sit among the pretty, outdoor Christmas decorations that we normally just pass by on our way in and out.
I praise you, Lord, for this extraordinary morning.