Thanksgiving

So across the big, wide ocean, y’all are celebrating Thanksgiving today.

Turkey and football and fevered Black Friday planning apart….it’s always seemed a wonderful thing to me that a country should set aside an entire day to be thankful.

I’ve been experimenting with gratitude recently.  Not the run-of-the-mill gratitude we all feel for the gestures and things which make us happy.  But gratitude for stuff I don’t necessarily feel grateful for.  Even stuff I downright resent.

And I’ve been discovering, during this experiment of mine, just how astonishingly powerful gratitude is.  How it can actually transform the way we feel; change our entire experience of a situation or relationship.

It began when I found myself idly wondering, one day, whether gratitude might operate like love.  After all, love worth its salt - solid, empowering love - is a choice: we choose to love the people closest to us - on the days when they’re driving us nuts as well as on the days when they melt our hearts.  What if gratitude operated that way, too?

I can report - conclusively - that it does.  This isn’t about denial or brainwashing.  It’s about choice.  There are always a gazillion ways to look at something.  The way we choose to look is our choice.  The way we choose to look is our truth.

Choosing to look with gratitude is proving to be an extraordinary and liberating experience.  So I’m definitely across the other side of the Atlantic in spirit today.  No turkey required.

The Same View: November

Today was the scheduled day to take this month’s photo from ‘our rock’ and - whad’ya know? - the sun shone (a bit).

It was hardly typical of the month to date, which has been grey or foggy by turns.  But I was sneakily glad - ’cause I prefer to show you the sunny side of life.  :)

Here then is the eleventh and penultimate picture in our series: November.

Christmas Market: Haworth

Our local Christmas market is a modest affair: stalls ranged along a stretch of Main Street; a craft fair in the Old School Rooms; shopkeepers in period costume; a local choir singing carols; mulled wine and buskers.

Despite its small scale, it’s a great place to pick up presents; and enough people turned out to create a jolly atmosphere.

Even the rain held off till the end of the day.  In the spirit of the season.

P.S.  Today I’m taking part in Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at Little Red House.  Why not pop on over and take a look at some of the other lovely mosaics you’ll find links to there?

Embracing the Grey

With the exception of the lovely mist-strewn hours mentioned in the previous post, the weather has been overwhelmingly grey since I returned from Delhi.  India was sparkling and vibrant and colourful.  England in November is grey and grey and grey.

So, of course, I’ve been doing the usual thing….the thing we British do as automatically as breathe: I’ve been moaning about the weather.  Big time.

But then it occurred to me that - since I can do nothing to change it - it might be more constructive to embrace it….to look for the beauty therein.  After all, a grey landscape can deliver up some meanly moody photos.

So, having revelled in the zinginess of all that Indian colour, I’m learning to savour the contrast.  If Delhi was a man, he’d be extrovert, disorganised, enigmatic and beguiling.  The Pennine Moors, on the other hand, are the strong, silent type.

Winners All

 

Helen’s name was first out of the bag today, so she wins the India give-away.  Congratulations, Helen!

However, since only five people put their names in the ring for this one, I decided they should all share in the Indian bounty.  So….a gorgeous, bejewelled notebook will shortly be flying off to Tracy in Norway; a pretty embroidered bag is wrapped and ready for Chesteraud; and Gail and Jacqueline get to share the stash of beautiful braids I brought back from the bazaars of Old Delhi.

If each of you lovely ladies would send me your address (just click Contact in the navigation bar), these treasures from the east will soon be winging their way to you.

As for the photograph above, it has nothing whatever to do with this post!  For the last two days, ribbons of mist have been lying in the valleys in the most breathtaking way.  And I just wanted to share them with you.  :)