One Thousand Gifts: Soap, Friends, Birds, Music, Graffiti, and Pickles

“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.” 

― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

Pear trees bursting out in a froth of blossoms

• Whipping up muffins in the morning
• The perfect sugar cookie: firm outside, fluffy inside
• Messy remnants of good times
• Chicken trucks barreling down our highway
• My brother's "inside voice"
• The carved table in my room--racetrack, palace, desk
• Granddaddy's love living in the woodwork
• An easy burden and a yoke that is light
• The amazing power of prayer
• An intercessor for all my weaknesses
• High scores on college papers!
• Bill Bryson's hilarious travelogue
• "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." -1 John 4:4
• Crisp white shirt on a warm afternoon
• The swollen bud of a spring mayapple
• Raindrop, almost invisible, turning the world upside down
• I know that God is listening
• A newly-made bed
• A smile when it's hard
• Sweaty morning exercise
• Piles of muddy weeds
• Clean socks, inside out
• A scribbled Granny letter
• Fuzzy snowflake pajamas
• Fresh, warm bread
• Frozen ginger snaps
• Popcorn with my brother
• Family photographs

The sublime majesty of Bierstadt

• Talk around the campfire
• Aaron's Pringle s'more
• Fried bologna and memories
• Romans 14:17
• Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
• Romans 8:28
• Laughing Aubrey
• Earnest Joyce
• Generous Grandma
• Funny stories about a friend now gone
• The Aaronic Benediction--each night without fail
• Tuneful harmonies from our little church "choir"
• Time Spent Sweeping
• The roots of little seedlings
• Enamel on Copper designs
• Coffee ring, hiding
• Tiny green life under gooey earth
• The never-ending birdsong
• A beautiful Easter Sunday
• The stone that rolled away from the tomb
• Fingertip--beautifully stitched by God
• Dogwoods in April
• Creamy mayonnaise
• Slippery, sudsy soap

“Stress isn't only a joy stealer. The way we respond to it can be sin.” 

• Everything's not as hard as it might be.
• Matthew 16:25
• The smell of a fresh egg pie
• Furtive animal crackers
• A wooden cross
• That last bite of Nutella
• Out of bed in the pre-dawn darkness
• Breaths of smoke billowing in the air

Sweet feathery blossoms

• A beautiful golden sun
• Cocoa dusted almonds 
• A luscious fried poptart
• An elegy's crushing chords 
• Brand new, lipstick red, streamlined, ergonomic ray gun with a negative ion generator. Otherwise known as a hair dryer.
• New year of life
• Beautiful handmade birthday card
• The tiniest alyssum
• My brand new shirt from Sevenly.org 
• Turquoise--makes me think of Granddaddy
• A child's smile
• Rays of light smoothing the clouds
• An adventuresome bird, reaching the tiptop branch
• Greasy popcorn in a paper bag 
• A lovely bone china tea set
• Gold-gilded pages, filled with thoughts unwritten 
• Counseling a friend 
• Pesky mosquitoes
• The notes of a chord
• The world's smallest hooks on the feathers of birds
• Hundreds of photographic slides: history come to life
• The fellowship of the saints

Last red berries dangling on a twig

• My Mom's big brown eyes
• A slice of hot milk sponge cake
• A handy-dandy flyswatter 
• British coasters
• New books for a new semester
• Chocolate orange Pims in a cookie jar
• Butterflies in my tummy
• My awesome family
• Brother sleeping in the next room
• Fresh-picked strawberries shining in the sun
• An iPod Touch that opens up the world
• Touching every piece of clothing in the shop.
• Cedar chest full of hopes and plans
• Awkward fingers making music
• Squalling Baby
• The moaning, graffitied train
• Painful mistakes and picking up the pieces
• Luscious, vibrant autumn, captured in a lens
• The word with no rhyme
• Beautiful blanket flowers, finally blooming
• Little seedlings, struggling through
• Roly-polies and memories of childhood

“Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant—a seed—this plants the giant miracle.” 

"Food & beverages, books or magazines are not permitted in this area." 

• Pretty package, done up in brown paper
• A chunky, hand-knitted scarf
• Tattered old bookmark
• Crunchy sweet snow peas
• Luscious lemon bars
• Sweet sisterhood with interesting sisters
• Words of wisdom from a crotchety old man
• Forgiveness and forgetfulness
• Lolling in bed looking at the sky
• Tucked away in my nook, typing in the dark
• Casting my anxieties on Him
• My brother's witty sense of humor
• Salty dill pickle
• Perfect holiness