I guess I’m like everyone else. We become familiar with where we are and forget to be thankful for all that surrounds us. This morning as I was out on my walk a car pulled up beside me, something that rarely happens on our road. The road is a very narrow two-way and there are curves that hug the top of the ridge. The speed limit is 25 mph, but I’ve noticed that most tourists or visitors go slower while those of us who live here quite often drive too fast for the curves.
Anyway, this car carrying a couple of adults pulled up beside me. That was really brave — not of me to acknowledge them, but of them to stop in the middle of a road on a sharp curve. (Maybe they didn’t realize that most of us who live here could drive this road blindfolded and that sometimes we go too fast.) But, to the point ….
This middle -aged couple asked if I lived in the area. Not to be sarcastic — but, yeah! Why else would I be walking along a mountain ridge that has few roads that lead onto the ridge — with a dog, no less? I soon realized that these folks were tourists or site-seers. And, they were impressed with the scenery! They asked if I could point out Lookout Mountain from where we were. I did.
They went on and on about the view from our ridge. And, for heaven’s sake they were intrigued by the old gates and stone work. Well, I am all too often intrigued by the gates and stone walls. In fact, I spend quite a bit of my time painting pictures of the old gates.
The point is that sometimes we forget the beauty that is all around us. We believe we have to go somewhere else to find it. We stop looking at what we have — maybe because we have it. We stop appreciating all the wonders of our own lives, always believing that the next person has it better. And, all too often we take our husbands and wives for granted. We become too familiar and too comfortable and we forget.
As I continued my walk I saw one of the neighbors in his yard. He is a very, very senior citizen — a retired doctor — who was tending his tomato vines. I yelled, “Hello!” and that was enough to cause him to take a break and come to the edge of his yard to chat. He reminded me that his wife had died two years earlier. Now he spends his hours making his yard beautiful. He even takes care of the intersection near his house, having planted day lilies from the intersection down the hill for about 30 feet on both sides of the road.
While we were chatting — and I was resting — I could only think of the couple who thought our ridge was so beautiful and the views so magnificent and the old doctor who confessed that he wished he had more years with his wife as he wiped away a tear.
When I got home I hugged my husband and told him I love him. Then, I took these pictures from our front yard and our back yard. I hope you think our view is as beautiful as I do. I have so much to be thankful for. The morning walk was a good reminder that everyone has something or someone we all too often take for granted.
From the front yard, our view of Lookout Mountain
and our view of Signal Mountain. That’s Chattanooga in the foreground.
And from our back deck a view of Georgia
You know, there is a lot to be thankful for. Sometimes we just need to be reminded to open our eyes to what surrounds us.
