10/24/11

Judith Glende: Silhouettes


When I was in my teens the month of November started being a very sad month for me.  My parents each died in November, and I took care of a dear friend who also passed away in November.

Bad news came in November.

The trees were bare, it was cold and grey.

I dreaded the month as it always brought back sad memories.

A few years ago on a cold November day, we were traveling in the car and I was looking out the window and really started looking at the trees. For the first time I noticed how beautiful their form was; something you could not see when they were fully leafed.

The silhouettes were beautiful.

I felt like I finally started to open my eyes and see what was around me.

How and why did my eyes finally start to open?  All because of the guidance of the book, "Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy" by Sarah Ban Breathnach. This book is organized as a walk through the year with gentle lessons of comfort, joy and guidance to contentment. I kept a journal through my walk and wrote down five things I was grateful for each day.

I started seeing the simple things and finding the pleasures in them, like those trees that I never noticed before.

I started to view my life differently. I no longer write what I am grateful for each day, but I acknowledge them and verbalize them more...

I feel them.
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You can learn more about Judith at her blog, Judith B Designs

6 comments:

Chris Kerr said...

Thank you for this reflection, Judith! It encourages me to take a look at my old way of thinking~~need to let in more joy!

Alice said...

Life is so much more enjoyable when we remember the simple things all around us.

Thank you for sharing your story.

TesoriTrovati said...

That is such a wonderful awareness, Miss Judy. I did like that book as well, and always had the best intentions the two or three times I got it going, but I am not so good with keeping it up through too much of the year. But it is a great lesson in grateful living to be sure. Thank you for reminding me to stop and take a look around me today.
Enjoy the day!
Erin

Jen Crossley said...

Your story was beautiful.Thank you for sharing this with everyone.It hit a place in my heart as it is this time of year when I lost my mum

My Life Under the Bus said...

This remind me of the quote.

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

MARCEL PROUST

It is a blessing to see things with new eyes! XO

Jan Thomason said...

I don't believe in coincidences and I don't believe that your awareness was a coincidence.
I think God opened your eyes in his time knowing when you would be ready to see his silouettes with your heart in the right place.

You have reason to feel that November is a melancholy month and I understand that. But, it appears to me that you have also realized to a greater extent that November is a month of thanks.

You blessed me with your story.
Thank you.
Jan