We Give Thanks Daily - For Our Home
In recent years it has become an accepted practice for everyone from do it – yourself writers to therapists of all stripes to recommend a daily dose of gratitude. Indeed, for those of us who are also familiar with spiritual disciplines, that is a biblical injunction that goes back millennia.
Every day there is one thing I am particularly thankful for. That is our level four apartment. It is just far enough from our city's downtown to be quiet and green. It was built at a time when it was custom made to include a wide firelane around the three sides of the building besides its facing the street, so it does not feel hemmed in by adjacent buildings, giving it a more spacious feeling.
We are on the top floor of the building (penthouse?), and actually have a level five den, which opens up on to a large 300 square-foot deck, the inner part of which is covered.
We had chosen to downsize from a detached home to condominium living when we moved to this city from Manitoba in 2005. Our nephew and my wife's cousin lived in the area and we enlisted their help in locating a place to move to. We had two stipulations. One was that it was not under any flight paths for the Vancouver International Airport, which would've created considerable noise pollution. The other was that it should be within walking distance of where I was going to be working. We found this apartment that met both criteria.
We can see planes taking off or landing at YVR, but from such a distance that sometimes we don't even hear them. We do sometimes hear them when they are taking off, at which time they of course make more noise. What we hear more of are small twin engine or even single engine planes flying over from time to time but that is not frequent enough to be bothered. In fact, I generally like listening to the sound of, for example, a radial-engine Beaver, and seeing such what we used to call bushplanes, flying about. It reminds me of my childhood growing up in northern Manitoba, where bushplanes were the main form of transportation in and out of our communities at the time.
We are not bothered by traffic, but since we are close to the centre of the city and not that far from the hospital we might hear more ambulance noise than some other areas. However, actual traffic on what I might describe as a third-rate artery one lot over to our east. When we moved here, our apartment looked over attached residences with one older three-story apartment somewhat to the left at the corner of our street and the street that is directly one lot over from our unit. Since then, the home more to the left of our apartment was replaced by a three-story four unit townhouse complex. Fortunately, it has a flat roof which is more or less level with our main living level so it still allows us to see a good deal of greenery and doesn't impede our view of the sky at all. To the right of that, across a driveway for the complex, which itself comes from the street right up to the wooden fence at the border of our property, remain two detached homes. Their backyards are full of greenery of all kinds, to the point where we can barely see the homes in the summertime. Across the street, particularly around the church that is situated there, there are a lot of trees, with even more visible as a skyline in the distance in all directions. Especially from our deck, we have a view of snowcapped Mount Baker to the south eas, although it is becoming more obscured by tree growth as time passes.
I especially appreciate this location when I sit at my desk and look out the window to my left. Even in the winter, when the non-coniferous trees are bare, I can sometimes see overwintering hummingbirds, flickers, finches, starlings and the ever-present crows and gulls. When the last two are making a big fuss, we know it is likely due to the presence of a Bald Eagle which we can quickly spot trying to escape the neighbourhood pests or soaring overhead. Not infrequently flocks of Canada Geese fly by, even below tree level; less frequently ducks.
There is a steady stream of traffic on that road out from the front of our apartment, but not enough to be a bother, and if we close our windows, as is generally the case in winter, we really don't hear it at all.
In the spring and early summer, of course, we can see the different trees around us blossoming in their time. The neighbour has a magnolia tree, and at the end of the detached home driveway is a dogwood tree. Straight across from the end of the driveway next to the church parking lot is a cherry tree, which blossoms in the springtime. There is a tree with plum blossoms right next to the fence. To the right of that is a large bamboo groove, one could say. Then we see roses of all kinds, and more recently even lilac, as well as the banana tree that the nearest townhouse unit owners have their own property. In the fall, the maple trees that grace our firelane on the building side of it turn brilliant red.
The birds that we see in summer are basically a continuation of those in the winter, as this climate is warm enough for most birds to stay around, except for the smaller ones that might rely more on insects as food. We still see the House Finches and the starlings. There are more robins in the summertime. Chickadees and nuthatches are present year-round. A variety or two of junco are to be seen in the different seasons.
With the wide open sky that we see, we see wonderful cloud formations of all kinds. At night we see the bright lights of approaching aircraft, some of the planets and a few stars. Most stars, of course, are not visible due to the light pollution from the urban environment in which we live. From time to time, we also see rainbows to the east, which is where our apartment faces. And, of course, we see all manner of wonderful sunrises. How often we have rushed to the window or out the balcony door to take pictures of sunrises and rainbows.
Besides what one might refer to as the social and economic benefits of our location in terms of being able to walk to most amenities, to visit friends, what you have just heard and describe most is a reference to being grateful for evidence of the natural order that we see all around us from where we live. Of course, most of this is planted by humans and some of the variety is a result of human breading practices. However, the basic building blocks of all of that, are still the results of the creative work of our all creative God, the source of all beauty. Ultimately, God gets our thanks for it all.
