Today, I am exceedingly grateful for –

My husband, companion, partner, lover, sweetheart, friend… "still the one" after all these years.

The inestimable satisfaction and joy of having launched children who are now grown and each of whom

• has strong integrity and passion and a well-formed conscience
• is devoted to each other in great affection, care and selflessness
• loves me and their Dad

Children who felt empowered and loved and giving enough to produce children of their own, giving me grandchildren whom I will discover and learn from for years to come.

Siblings who are “my biggest fans” no matter how many miles and years of expanse there are between us.

The stability and care, steadfast strength and blessings on my siblings’ lives.

The gift of more siblings and children through marriage.  I have already gained another sister, a daughter and a son.

The ability to fly, as a strong, steady arrow, having been launched from my parents’ bow long ago, feeling their strength even now as support beneath my wings.

My mother allowing me and my sister to hold her hands and usher her to the threshold of her Welcome Home party on the other side, and that I felt her joy at crashing through the gates that bound her on Earth.

Seasons that support passages of death, birth, struggle, freedom, courage and growth.

The fact that I can walk, sit, stand, use my hands to grasp another’s, to type, to cook, to bathe, to turn the soil, to sew, to wipe away tears, to love.

A home that is shelter from the heat and cold, the wind and rain and balm for those who come to celebrate and to rest.

A spot for my desk with a view of mountains and the trees who share the sustenance of this patch of land with us – redbud, willow, dogwood,  pear, apple, spruce, pine, maple, and more whose names I don’t know yet. 

Running water, electricity, blankets, slippers, boots, hat, gloves, tools for the jobs at hand.

Dark-eyed juncos who visit in winter, cardinals and blue jays who bring flashes of color to the white snowy landscape, sparrows, mourning doves, tufted titmice, wrens, finches, hawks.

Music.  Everywhere – through cds and satellite, through glorious voices and instruments, and the songs of crickets, peepers, geese, birds, children and wind chimes.

Friends who write, call, visit, reach out, care and pray for me.

Peace and confidence in God’s work in us, and the work I’ve been given to do. 

The ability to feel the Spirit of the One who creates, animates and sustains all, to see myself reflected in and part of it all – from the striped heaved rocks on a Pennsylvania mountainside to the sap and buds, flowering and leafing of the trees, to the wind that lifts flower petals and birds’ wings, to the devoted, warm presence of the family dog asleep at my feet.

Teachers and prophets throughout the ages who have left a path, pointed the Way, tried to translate what is ineffable and transcendent so that we might listen and hear and live as we were meant to and so heal the world.

Copyright (c) 2009