One Blessing: A Golden Maple

Count your blessings, we say. We say that all the time. But do we? How many times have we heard the phrase, count your blessings, and how many times have we actually sat down, and counted them? Or even, noticed them. So here, here’s how, the other day, I did, I noticed.

Outside my window at this moment the sun is creating a glossy masterpiece out of a maple tree. The gentle sunlight makes even the furrowed grey bark glow. There is a long twisted stripe of fuzzy moss, snaking up the bark. A rake leans against the trunk. But what makes this tree so sublimely beautiful right now is the bounty of autumn leaves, thick and golden and hanging in dancing clusters. They seem to cry out, “Oh please look, look just look at us, look at the beauty of this natural wonder, we are leaves, we are a wondrous tree in autumn finery!” It is almost as if the spirit of the tree is saying, SEE ME SEE ME I am a blessing today. And when I stop and look, I realize. Yes. I am blessed first and foremost to be alive, and to have the power of good eyesight (no eyeglasses even!!) And I am truly blessed to have this lustrous healthy maple growing in my yard. The grey bark, its soft color, its texture in the light, even that snake of fuzzy moss, all of it is a miracle, because all of it is infused by the very energy of Creation, which infuses everything we see. We see it particularly in nature. And for that blessing, I say thank you.