Thanksgiving and thankfulness. I’m thankful for a life of devotion to love and giving. Love has many forms and moments.Prose isn’t well suited to capture them. Art can. Music and poetry are especially good for holding the experience. I call such experiences That. Those moments of extreme gratitude aren’t always about the person or dog or vista that sparks them. Sometimes That comes at the sight of a tiny dandelion struggling through packed dirt, or the light brush of rain on my face. That becomes palpable in a scent of roses iwhere no flowers are blooming. Sometimes a slant of light can just make me weep.
For me, Thanksgiving isn’t so much about gratitude so much as a reminder to give to someone else. It’s the giving part more than the thanks part of the holiday that stirs me. And it has nothing to do with food, though a turkey dinner is nice. The holiday season makes me thoughtful about what I have and what I can give. I hope your season of giving and thanks includes thanking yourself. You deserve it. Give yourself a moment of That.
Standing Stillness
I step out onto the deck this morning
to inhale the song of eucalyptus
and rest my busy head in the trees
and a woodpecker’s drumming,
more relentless than my aching dreams.
To the creaking of deck boards underfoot,
I hear heaven’s prayer: Earth, earth.
The muscles of awe flex, and I stand
as still as the empty sky.
That is my closest name.
Soon I’m pulled back to tasks and lists.
Yet the grind of trucks outside
on rattling roadways
carries hints of That grateful silence.
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