Within the Vine

“…It is the beginning  of list season. Lists of holiday menus, lists of handmade projects, lists of have-to-buys. They’re scattered and stacked across the counter, around my desk… She dares me, and I don’t even blink. Could I write a list of a thousand things I love? …as in begin another list. … on a whim on a dare I scratch it down: Gift list. I begin the list. Not of gifts I want but of gifts I already have.”

Ann Voskamp, ‘One Thousand Gifts : A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are’  p45 *

I too took up the challenge

To list

To write

Recording the small

Seemingly insignificant

Beauties

Surrounding me

To do so was enriching

Slowed me down

Enabled me to really see

The more I wrote

The more I saw

Then I let it slide

Allowed other things to creep in

I stopped writing

My thanksgiving journal

Oh I give thanks

Brief glimpses

Hurried glances

Mere mutterings

Faint shine

Throughout the day

Registering

Thoughts of gratitude

But

Fleetingly

Nothing more

The act of recording details

The scratch of pen on paper

That tip-tapping of computer keys

Takes time

It literally involves

Wider more complex areas of the brain

Not only physical movements

But the mental processes

That turns thought into script

Reading

Re reading

Checking

Shifting

Correcting

Re evaluating

Detail being recorded

These light up the brain

So it glows with activity

Vitality engages

Combining Action with Contemplation

Heightening awareness

Enabling me

To

See more

Appreciate more

More

Thanks

Explored

More recorded

Activities to brighten

Dark and Austere

Chambers of the mind

Celebrating wholeness

Fitting tribute

To all that falls around me

Gifts

I would otherwise allow to pass

Fitting tribute

For invisible God

Fitting tribute

For visible Creator

Eucharistia

Thanksgiving

Eucharist

Last supper

Breaking of bread

Communion

Lights up the Mind

Awakens the Soul

Satisfies the Heart

Picking up

Tearing bread

Breaking crumb

Lifting

Catching the fragrance

To eat

To see

Raising cup

Swallowing

Physiochemical

Digestion begins

Combining

Cell with cell

Doing in Remembrance

As Jesus said

As this season of lists

Passes

So too

The season of giving

I determine

Once again

Take the challenge

To actively record

All I see

All that makes me

Mind full of Him

All

As I recognise Him

Recognising God

In the things that surround

In the little things

In all things

Making the ordinary

Extra ordinary

Eucharistia

Gratitude

Grace

Thanks

Thanksgiving

Words  and Photographs  © Denise Stanford 2012

Ann Voskamp’s blog Holy Experience  may also be accessed via the button on the right… visit and be Blessed

From my Thanksgiving Journal…

 

Fig and Hoe     

 

    Winter Thanks 

 

~ by Denise Within the Vine on 04/01/2012.

Posted in Books, Encouragement, Inspiration, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Journal, Walking with Him, Wise Words