The Season of Gratitude

If I leave the office on time, it is dusk when I arrive home. If I linger a few moments over an e-mail or take the time to tidy up my desk, it is the beautiful blue hour, l'heure bleu, which of course reminds me of Paris. I am grateful for this fleeting moment as the November night closes in.

This gray-and-gold month is a time suspended between the glories of autumn and the harsh winter, a prelude to a season of high expectations. But it brings with it - for many of us - a four-day weekend. Reason to be thankful indeed.

As I walk up my little hill I pass an old rose bush that offers this time of year the most glorious rose hips. This small magic welcomes me home.

I still have a pumpkin on the little red garden bench on my porch. I am happy this year to see that many porches still hold pumpkins. A small thing, but it prolongs the beauty and bounty of October and for that I am grateful, too.

I am thankful today that despite the gloom and damp of a Sunday afternoon, my husband's slow simmering pot roast is filling the house with the most delicious aroma.

And of course, the Badgers and Packers won and that, too, is cause for thanks.

May you have plenty of reasons large and small to be thankful this season.