Slow Down and Notice - November

Many thanks to Brynn, our nature-loving friend, for this beautiful reflection on this time of year. May we all pause in the midst of the hustle and bustle - to slow down and notice - to look up, around or down - and see what speaks to us.

SOURCE OF ALL BLESSINGS, You bless us with winter trees - playgrounds for the fox squirrels as they chase from ground to bough to branch before leaping desperately to a wisp of a twig that sinks under the weight of the chase delivering them to the ground to begin all over again;

skeletons that reveal the bald-faced hornet nest at the tippy-top of the tallest cottonwood tree chewed into being by hundreds of flying insects that we may swat away or praise as miracles;

mirrors that show us that aging bodies with knobby joints and awkward appendages are beautiful.

May I remember, when summer comes around again, all that is hidden under the fleshy majesty.

With gratitude to Br. David Steindl-Rast and his book, 99 Blessings, for the endless possibility within the form of this blessing.