Thanks Giving, 2018

I write almost daily in my journal about what I am grateful for, but I also like to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday by sending my gratitude out into the universe. I’ve listed just a few of the things that I am grateful for below. Please add your own list to mine; I will read them from top to bottom every single day this week. (So if yours is the first comment, I’ll read it 7 times.)
The big things that I am grateful for:
I am alive. I have a home. I am safe. I have food. I have a loving husband and partner. I have a wonderful network of friends and family. I live in a beautiful part of the world. I have three dogs, two cats and a flock of sheep who bring me joy and happiness every day. I am relatively healthy for just turning 70, in spite of the fact that my face is drooping off of my skull like the ears of a sleeping donkey.
The little things that I am grateful for (never to be discounted):
My husband’s eyebrows. Too cool.

Maggie’s ears.

Color. I really, really love color, of which the book Joyful reminded me. Thanks to that, I bought this throw rug for the new mudroom. Makes me smile every time I see it.

Willie’s happy face.

Sheep with blue butts. Blue butts mean that they have been bred. Four down, (Lady Baa Baa is hidden), one to go? Or did ewe lamb Beyonce, second butt from the left, get bred on day one and just not get marked well?

Tootsie’s ears when she is running.

Last but not least, you, dear reader. What a special village this is. I am so grateful for it. Please add your own list–especially of the “little things,” because, as we all know, they add up to being very big indeed. Even listing just one thing has an impact. I look forward to reading your comments, and smiling, every morning for the next week.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Maggie was in her first sheepdog trial since being injured and was at her best. I was thrilled with her. It was a small trial on a course that she knows well, but still, she made one tiny mistake (left rather than right) and otherwise was paw perfect. Before she was injured we’d been working on her whistled “adverbs” (“Go counterclockwise but not all the way around to their heads, just slide a few feet to your left then keep walking straight on.”), and she responded like a champ. And no sign of any leg stiffness or discomfort either. She got 49 out of the first 50 possible points, 23 out of 30 on her drive (my bad) and no pen points cuz we ran out of time because, uh, well, see below.
I, on the other hand, made two mistakes. One small (this time I gave her the wrong cue, eeps, but easy to fix), the other large. (I messed up the last leg of the drive, timed out at the pen because of it). Would someone please let me know when one stops making stupid mistakes while competing in trials?
And Willie? Oh, my Willie boy. Twelve and a half years old, and he worked in the pens pushing a mob of sheep into chutes. No finesse needed here, just a gutsy dog willing to get between sheep and a fence and force them forward. The day before Willie was confronted by our new ram lamb, and I swear he chest bumped him. Boy do I wish I had a photo of that. What a dog.
Sorry, no photos from the trial. Here’s a picture of Maggie working sheep, taken by my friend Rob a few years ago. Still one of my favorites.

Whatever is happening in your life, I hope that it includes some moments of joy and sweetness. Happy Thanks Giving.