Gracias

for every good thing
I give thanks
for snow covered mountains
I give thanks
for aspens quaking in the fall wind
I give thanks
for flowing water
stony brooks
and roaring waves
I give thanks
for thunder and lightening
for wind and rain
I give thanks
for camping alone on the Great Plains
I give thanks
for being
for birth and for death
I give thanks
for love, lust and loss
for beginnings and endings
for words on paper
and words falling from the mouths of friends
I give thanks
for laughter and happiness
for the morning sun and the evening moon
for mosses and ferns and liverworts
I give praiseful thanks
and count them as blessings
for babies and children
for snotty-nosed teenagers
and angry rioters who call for us to see
I give thanks
for mothers and fathers
who are here or not here
for cousins near and far
I give thanks and cherish their memory
for those who have taught me
for Tina, for Mark, for Tom
for my sister who calls to me
for the joy of aloneness
for the sadness of aloneness
for the closeness of others
for the distance of many
for the miles that are near and the miles that separate
I give thanks
for the open-hearted of the world
for the closed and fearful
for the dreamers lying in the open fields
and for the students in their classrooms
I give thanks each day
for those who suffer, who are abandoned
for the sick and the dying
for the scorned and the desolate
I wish hope and peace

may all hearts be opened
may all minds love the search for truth
may all bodies be at rest
for all of this I yearn
for all blessings I am grateful

5/26/15