Some call this “Gratitude Practice” – I call it “Our Life”
“If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”
Meister Eckhart
– another beautiful evening together
One of the many and magical ways Rebekah and I have “landed on our feet” here in Tarboro is via the openness of so many good people to include us in their lives and their families and their celebrations.
Yes, bicycling constantly exposes me to the beauty of rural Edgecombe County, but it is the beautiful people who generously pull back the curtain and invite us into their lives who bring color and richness and depth to the experience of living here and we are so very grateful.
– Bennett with what’s left of the pig!
Hence our evening at a Labor Day weekend picnic with friends as the skies cleared in the late afternoon and the temperatures dipped into the 70’s.
Picnic tables set up in the shade behind the rambling historic Mayo farmhouse. Young families and children with room to run free. Cousins and parents and in-laws and old friends.
Clay pigeon shooting out in one of the fields. Long tables laden with every kind of good food imaginable. All anchored by Mayo hospitality and Bennett’s master touch with his massive barbecue smoker grill contraption, cooking one enormous pig and any number of chickens to finger-licking perfection.
Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves:
– Rebekah with CW and Billy Leland
Rebekah and I always say that one of the best gifts we can give a community is to love it, wholeheartedly. It just makes life so much more wonderful when a community like this one turns around and loves us right back.
Sometimes we take a long look at our lives and we pinch ourselves and say, “How did we get to be so blessed? How did we get to be around people who are so good and so generous? How is it that we are here, looking across the fields into this sunset, full with amazing food and in the company of such fine human beings?”
– gathering with people of grace
“All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.” – 2 Corinthians 4:15
And so we count our blessings, we can’t help ourselves. Some people call this “a gratitude practice.” I call it our life.
