Among the 1000 gratitudes, I am surprised to report that today I am grateful for ice. Today was gloomy and wet and cold. I grumbled about taking the dog out early in the morning – but when I did, the lilac bush by our door was coated in ice – slick and shiny, as though the whole thing had been dipped in glass.

All the trees in our town looked like they’d been decorated with fairy lights.

I’m not saying that noticing the ice on the trees and lilacs suddenly made us all cheerful about the gray day. If only! But the noticing made some space in all of our days for wonder and for beauty.

Late March in Minnesota isn’t a time that any of us really associates with beauty – further south there are daffodils and crocuses – but Minnesota has its own beauty right now. Such as that icy beauty is, it is a gift.