A friend on Facebook started doing a 30 Days of Gratitude Challenge today as a way of marking the month of Thanksgiving.  I liked the idea but wanted prompts – something to do that’s more than the usual.  So I found this:

A photo challenge AND a gratitude journey.  Yes!

Today’s prompt is Color.

I am grateful that I live in a place with so much color.  This time of the year, the trees are losing their leaves but giving us quite the show before they go.  Spring and summer, the color of the roses is present everywhere even alongside the freeways.  Even when it is winter and the trees are bare, the grass is still green, the fir trees are still green, and the moss in the forests creates a magic space where things are still very much alive even in the dead of winter.

For many years after moving here, I loved the milder climate in comparison to living in the midwest.  I remember one time when my brother came to Portland from the desert, he stood in my front yard and exclaimed, “It is so green here! Your lawn is green. You still have flowers. I need to come over here more in the winter when we are yellow and brown and things feel dead.”  At that moment, I realized how much I was missing – taking for granted.

I am grateful that I live in a beautiful place with beautiful colors that make me obsessed with capturing them in my photography.