Welcome to Gratitude Gems, where I show a little appreciation for the good things in my life!

I had to walk to work this morning for the first time in a loooooong time, and boy what a drag!  I’ve come to realize that I really, really didn’t appreciate all that my body was capable of before getting pregnant, which puts me in the position now of desperately missing the simple luxuries of walking to work without the added back and hip soreness.  It makes me feel pretty pathetic, but as a coworker reminded me, I am carrying a whole other human being with me after all.

That said, I really enjoyed my walk this morning for one simple reason: the birds.

I can tell spring is very close because the birds were singing their little hearts out this morning, and it was glorious!  When the sounds of birds and their songs are almost louder than the nearby traffic, that certainly makes for a great start to my day.

Now filling my head are visions of walking to and from work last spring: of the tulips in the front yards and the flowers growing out of a tree stump along the way and the squirrels chattering.  Spring is in the air already, and it’s still only February!  Happy Monday indeed.

Here’s hoping it only gets warmer and the birds only get louder from here on out!

S