Gratitude - Dec 30th

Today I'm grateful for my chickens.  How many mornings I would have stayed in bed.  Especially during the dark days of December when everyone is on holiday from their regular work, sleeping until all hours of the morning.  Not me though,  I must get up before the sun to let those chickens out.  It could easily be argued that an electric door on a timer would be great.  Yet I'm grateful for that moment I get when I open the door and watch them as they race out to be the first in the new day.  The first to the feeding dish.  The first to get water.  To get first dibbs on the nesting boxes.  Pushing past each other and cutting each other off.  Sometimes even pecking sharply on another hen.  The squawks and antics, makes me smile.  I take care of their simple needs and it only takes a few minutes.  I feel their gratitude and I'm ready to start my day.  Now most days I get up much earlier than they do so in the late spring when the days are long and the sun rises early I'll be ready for them.  I will already be awake, writing at my desk.  The chickens give my days a little bit more meaning and I'm grateful for that.