GIVING THANKS

Photo art by S. Auberle



GIVING THANKS

Among other wonders of our lives, we are alive with one another,

we walk here in the light of this unlikely world that isn't ours for long.

                                                                          ~  John Daniel

Friend, the road is the destination…so they say, but my destination this morning is a sunny meadow.  The air is crisp, a bit of frost lingers on leaves beneath my feet and a little north wind teases at me.  Across the field, and into crow-talking woods for a while--I am warmer in here, out of the wind.  The trail winds deeper through tall trees, past old settlers discard heaps.  The crows and I converse for a while, then, wing to wing, they fly off into late autumn blue, and I return to the dry grass meadow and its ancient apple trees.  Here and there hangs a yellow or red globe, a bright spot of color in the dead branches.  Garlands of bittersweet drape their bright orange against a cerulean sky.  Small, abandoned nests dot the trees and a mud-dauber house hangs heavy in a branch, its swirls and patterns  exquisitely fashioned.  At my feet grasses are hollowed out, where deer have bedded down in the night.  A dog barks somewhere, far off.  I am just another child grown old, yet my heart still beats, lungs take in air, legs carry me over the land--what gifts--what blessings!  The fourteenth century mystic, Meister Eckhart, said if the only prayer you said in your whole life was thank you, it would suffice.  And though most days I question whether anyone is listening, today I kneel in cold grass, whispering my two word love poem…over and over and over. 

~  mimi

It goes without saying, of course, that I am immensely grateful for many, many things in my life, most importantly--my tribe of loved ones.  And grateful to be spending this beautiful holiday with some of them, so once again, the road beckons...Happy Thanksgiving to all...