A Saturday List

When a week leaves you increasingly speechless, I guess it's time for a gratitude "list of ten."

• I am thankful to be indoors and warm. It is approximately 6 degrees Fahrenheit, with strong north winds. Judging from the conversations I've been hearing on the city bus recently, not everyone is that fortunate. Top of my list.
• I am thankful for the two robins I saw yesterday, even though I know they were lured north by the 55 degree temperatures the other day. I hope the sweet pair either flew south again or have found somewhere warm to wait it out another few days.
• I am thankful that the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, has appointed its first female full-time singer, alto (countertenor) Carris Jones.  The choir already had several female substitutes on its list, and it is not the first English cathedral choir to hire an adult woman singer, but it is arguably the most prominent one. I'm feeling both thrilled and a bit bittersweet. I know I absolutely would have done this ten, twenty, thirty or forty years ago had it been an option. But the situation is simply changing too late for me. At 61, I do not have the stamina to do that kind of intense performing/sight-singing five or six times a week. There's a future for my voice, but it isn't this. I'm thankful for the simple clarity of that, and I'm proud as a mother hen of Carris!
• I am thankful for how the events of the world are providing top-notch law of attraction instructions (more on this next week, I am sure.)
• I am thankful that my computer is "hanging in there."
• I am thankful for Time Team episodes. I just love them.
• I am thankful for several hours of "little kid" time yesterday. When you never had your own children, it's easy to convince yourself that you don't need to see the world through their eyes, but it isn't true!
• OK, number seven or eight can be where this list starts to fizzle out, but it's all the more important to keep going. I am thankful for some really good food the last few days.
• I am thankful for the opportunity to practice the organ for an hour yesterday. It was just a question of playing some hymns from the 1940 Hymnal, but it reminded me once again of my musical power.
• Ta-da, number ten. Once again, I am so thankful for this blog and its readers. Some days there are only two or three of you out there, sometimes a few dozen, but either way, it is so nice to know you are there.