Birthday blessings

Today I have been blessed with many beautiful gifts from Mother Earth:

1. I didn't go to bed until after midnight, so was awake for the first few minutes of my birthday. The day began with a silent white moon, waxing full, sending its light through the cold window beside my bed.

2. At dawn, standing in the freezing dark at the school bus stop with my daughters, I suddenly heard a heart-stopping (for me, anyway) sound: the honking of Canada geese. I looked up into the sky and there they were, in a ragged V, soaring overhead, trumpeting their call. Absolutely lovely.

3. Later in the morning, I walked out my back door and there, not 20 feet away, was "Scott," the resident hawk of our neighborhood, skimming low through the branches of our woods and calling Happy Birthday to me in his unmistakeable voice.

4. During our drive up into the mountains, in the yard of a farmhouse: a brown dog, lying on his back in the grass, all four paws wriggling in the air. A sunbath on a winter morning. Such joy.

5. A walk through a chilly Appalachian cove forest and finding, at the end of the trail, a half-frozen waterfall.

6. In the evening, as we sat by the fire on the back porch, the moon was wreathed with a giant silver corona. I haven't seen one of those in years.

Beautiful, beautiful day. I'm filled with gratitude.