the barn has been quiet these days. I don’t mean this literally. It is rare, a quiet barn. I mean, this site. I keep up with my weekly “moment” photos and have been enjoying them. But the cowgirl, she has been short on words.

I sit here in the quiet of Thanksgiving night. Everyone asleep, the horses all brought into their stalls, dinners all fed, the house eerily still after the bustle of the day, dishes done, silence falling all around, cold settling in already at 23 degrees and falling. The ups the downs, the laughters and the disappointments of the day all done. It is now that I find myself drawn once again to words. To writing. To the barn of the soul.

It is easy to find gratitude in many things, moments, thoughts, feelings. The softness of my daughter’s cheek. The full table of food. The lack of want. The freshness of air. The beauty of the world.

It is not always so easy to find it in the quiet solace of the open space at the end of the day when the world sleeps. It is there. These are the times, my friends. These are the times that many turn on the TV, turn up the news, turn up the outside world to blur the quiet, to fill the space. In this barn, there is none of that. It is quiet space. It is the sitting with oneself that leads to appreciation. Not the hyped up, overdone, media-induced, would’ve been, should’ve been, could’ve beens but the true and deep moments of gratitude. They are quiet. They are empty. They are calm. They don’t need filling. They are also accepting of life as it is. Even in the heavier moments. Life is not about ups and downs, highs and lows. It is the peace you struggle sometimes to find, and other times not, that sits with you every moment of everyday. The solace of the open space… of… each… moment…