Gratitude a Day - part 2

 What Taste are you most grateful for? The challenge for November 10.

     This question stopped my progress on this challenge.  I felt at first that I had already answered it when I answered the question about what smell.  The smell and anticipation leading up to the taste are very much part of the same indulgence and experience in my definition.

     But thinking it over beyond the immediate reaction of Spaghetti.  Home made becomes the required component of almost every option I think of.  The taste of meals shared with family, or cookies baked with grandma, the flavors I wake up longing for are those tied to memories with friends  even when I think of foods that I never tasted until I was grown and away from Wyoming, the ones I love were shared in someone’s home, with friends who welcomed me like family. Lamb and cabbage and steamed bread, in a sesame garlic tahini sauce after being boiled in a hot pot in the middle of the table. Chicken, noodles and pumpernickel bread with chicken Paprikas at my cousin’s house. Blanched peaches in cream with new friends after baked pork chops and rice. Crab in lemony butter caught by my son out in the wintery Pacific.

Food with family becomes a taste for the soul too  

What Holiday are you most grateful for? The challenge for November 11.

     Summer or winter? July or December? Choosing between dark nights walking among twinkling lights and holding the hand of a beloved child. Or. Turquoise water, hot sun and fireworks on the beach. I can’t choose between the 4th of July and my birthday week, or Christmas.

What Texture are you most grateful for? The challenge for November 12.

     Fur, silky, soft, luxurious mink is nice, beaver is incredible but even though I’m against furs as fashion, my childhood was spent among furs, I know the texture of skunk, possum, Fox and bobcat, rabbit and the feeling of porcupine as I delicately pulled the quills for design work on deer skin dresses and moccasins.  My grandfather was a trapper at first, then a trader who bought and sold the hides, Antlers, horns and furs harvested in the greater Yellowstone, Park County Wyoming area.  Now my favorite fur is the fur of a living cat and dog  

What Ability are you most grateful for? The challenge for November 13.

     I can swim, sing, write, paint, tell stories and explore the world but it’s always best when done with a child. I guess that means that my favorite, most treasured ability is the ability to relate to, encourage and love the little’ uns. I love a great day as a teacher more than almost anything else  

 

What Sight are you most grateful for? The challenge for November 14.

     My favorite sense is the sense of vision  I love photographs and paintings  the interplay of lights and shadows, the emotion evoked by colors.  But most of all I feel alive and small but part of something enormous when I see tiny, twinkling lights. Give me firework displays or Christmas lights, the coals of a campfire or the fireflies over a summer lawn, give me stars and a universe of peace fills my soul.

Which Season are you most grateful for? The challenge for November 15.

     Summer, only summer unless it’s Christmas. But I love spring and its luscious mud puddles and nest building birds. I love fall and the leaves that glow like a fire.  Each season has its own gift, but I’m a school person. So the school calendar has formed my world view and times off of school to be with family are my favorites.