gratitude

I awoke friday morning by noises, sure it was a bear, never saw it but knew it was here......I am overwhelmed with a sense of happiness, lucky to live in an area so rife with natural wonder and beauty as well as man made history and innovations. I am so blessed by our family situation to see my son experience new milestones up close and personal....to be home most of the time with him and living our little simple life, laundry, dishes, home cooked food, mending and stretching what we have, trying not to be influenced by the trends of the day......it is the little things I notice most, the askew bird feeder, that has been empty for weeks, but put back on the stand since we had company, to make it look nice. This friday morning the bear had looked at that bird feeder for sustenance, but I KNEW it looked askew............later in the day a neighbor confirmed it, they had seen the bear in our yard...took photos even, but in the dark of the early morning no visible evidence........I am grateful that we spent the day together today, just the 3 of us, running errands to the hardware store, playing in the yard......watching a glorious sunset together and hearing our 3 year old tell us about things he has gleaned from his overhearing us talk or answering his questions, one small example was this morning when I was hanging the sheets on the line to dry, he was playing underfoot and picked up 4 sticks then told me he was building a see-saw car so it could be taken apart when he moved it and when i glanced at the piles of sticks.....he had two in each direction rolling along like axles supporting the top 2.....something in me just pounds harder when he exhibits this "natural" learning...not from our direct instruction but maybe just from our providing the environment for him to experiment.......