Three Good Things: Rhapsody in Gray

Per the things I resolved for 2025 that are decidedly not resolutions (I like to think of them as necessary adjustments to my attitude and perspective), I’m opting today for “blessing the here and now” as an uncertain future lies ahead of us.

Blessing the here and now sounds easier than it is, at least for someone like me whose attention span is at the mercy of the slightest blip on the mental radar screen. The here and now can contain a whole lot. But I’m trying to go from macro to really, really micro, and to do that today I’ve selected three things to rest my attention on, and even more specifically three things that are the color gray. Why? I don’t know. It’s just what came to me, and one has to start somewhere.¹

Three good things, gray on gray on gray:

1. The dappled gray of the sky with its cloud cover carrying rain that makes small, pleasing patterns on the incoming tidal waters of the salt marsh. (breathe…..)

2. The dark, lush gray of the squirrel that begs at the door for a handful of nuts, switching its fluff of a tail and eyeing me with a mixture of suspicion and hope. (breathe…..)

3. The kitten-soft gray of the cashmere v-neck sweater I’m wearing that I scored at Goodwill some months ago and on cold nights I sleep in, cocooned in its delicate warmth. (breathe…..)

I consider these three things, pausing over each one as if in a small, wondrous museum made up of three gray items. I circle back around to examine them again, then again, and my thoughts that are all too prone to awfulizing come to a kind of rest, a meditative stillness that I crave. I am hopeful practices like this can rewire my anxious, busy brain.

I’m wondering if this lack of attention coupled with general unease are widespread modern maladies? What do you think? And what are some ways you slow down and bring yourself closer to quiet and calm?

1. Shoutout to my fellow overthinkers who might spend most of your morning puzzling this one out.