By Elizabeth Speth
- Larkspur. Lupine. Everyone gives thanks for Larkspur and Lupine.
I once heard someone say: “What if you woke up tomorrow and the only things you had were the things you gave thanks for yesterday?”
- My view walking between my office and my car. Late summer butterfly photos.
That is why Sunday, for me, is mostly a silent day, a quiet string of gratitude prayers for the things I still want to have tomorrow. I spend the sacred day in church — in the Cathedral of the Outdoors. I try to trade whatever is troubling me — and on some Sundays much is troubling me — for thoughts of thanks.
Hank Thoreau, always a good guy for a nifty quote (and a lover of the Outdoors, so he’s okay in my book), said: “It’s not what you look at that matters, but what you see.”
I take that to mean we strip away the hurry, and the worry, the restless need to focus on the NEXT thing. Open our naked eyes to really ‘see’ the beauty we want again tomorrow. Our loved ones. Our surroundings. All of it. It’s a lot to take in. Thank goodness.
Amen
I am grateful that there are bears where I ride and hike, and that I often get to see them.
My mare Cognac, giving thanks for a field of locoweed.
Thank you, Mother Nature, for water droplets on leaves.
How grateful am I for Outdoor Survival Kits?
Grateful my husband and I get to ride through tumbled hills of granite on the shores of Folsom Lake.
Newly’s kind eye.
Giving thanks for the view between my horse’s ears.
I am grateful that a river runs through my outdoor cathedral.
Always give thanks for wildflowers that look like rumpled bedsheets.
Mostly Beautiful Things 
I just spent a day pulling locoweed and was looking up varieties in case I didn’t recognize a type and saw your picture of Cognac eating it. I almost threw up it was so upsetting. Please don’t show pictures of this on the Web and give people the impression this highly toxic weed is something a horse or any livestock can eat. After seeing the devastating effects on cattle and beloved horses put down from prolonged ingestion, I can only shake my head in sadness.
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Dearest Jen: I am very sorry for your nausea. Also your head tremors and your sadness. Locoweed, or vetch, is something my horses have enjoyed in moderation on the trail for years. Years and years and years. It’s considered a delicacy by many of my friends when we are out riding, and our horses enjoy snacking on it very much. I wish you the very best going forward.
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