In gratitude I find the answer to the ailments of my heart, mind and soul. I am thankful for the way gratitude can lift me from a self-imposed prison and plant seeds of freedom in my heart. I am thankful for the way that remembering to be grateful helps me find love and humor in moments of fear and stress. I am thankful for the way expressing gratitude can shift another person's entire demeanor. Drawing a smile out of a frowning, serious or stressed out face with a thank you or acknowledgment of shared humanity is so powerful, is it not? I am thankful for those moments when it was my frowning, serious or stressed out face from which a smile was teased through that simple act being on the receiving end of a thank you.

I am so thankful for the kindness of strangers. The world (tv news - at least in America) sometimes can make you think there is danger lurking in every corner and there's nothing to be trusted out in the general public. But my experience tells me good, kind people are everywhere. And it inspires me to be kind and good in return, and look out for the well being of others. I am grateful I can see past and through the pain and sadness which perpetuates the tragic happenings and be open to and embrace the world in which I live.

I am so grateful for the written word and my natural ability to use it to connect in ways with which I otherwise struggle. Without exaggeration, writing has saved my life. I don't know how I would have dislodged the achings of my heart were it not for my ability to write on them and clear the path for healing. I don't know how I would have discovered that I am not alone if not for reading the written words of others. I don't know how I would have discovered who I am if not for writing and reading. I am so grateful for everything I have read which has pulled me to a new level of understanding of myself or the world around me. I am so grateful for everyone who writes. I am so grateful for everyone who reads.

There are, indeed, an infinite number of things about which to be grateful. Air. Electricity. Humans. Animals. Planets. Stars. Education. Logic. The list is truly unending. The crazy part, is that it is so easy to misplace gratitude. Even with all of the things which go noticed and unnoticed which make my life better, sometimes I forget and feel so lost and hopeless and helpless.

So I just thought I would make a challenge to help me remember to pay attention, because even when things seem insurmountably hard, gratitude can be a light in the dark. Even when I am struggling to find things about which to be grateful in my life (or especially?) I find I can reach out to one person or even one object and say thank you. And it starts to lift me or at least keep me from sinking more.

I am thankful to the barking dog, warning of danger.

I am thankful to the smiling stranger, adding that little bit of brightness to the world.

I am thankful to the darkness, for helping me feel safe all those years.

I am thankful to the light, for helping me see.

I am thankful to the laughter of children, for reminding me I was once young. And that I should definitely laugh more.

I am thankful to music. You know what you have done for me.

I am thankful, of course, to my family and my friends. To all my loved ones, and to all who seek love.

I am thankful to the rain, sun, seasons, nature in general.

I am thankful to plate techtonics.

Clearly, I could go on and on. Thankfully, I don't have the time for that. Thank you, for taking the time to read this, for liking to read in general, and for reading what I write in particular. I am grateful my heart has this outlet, writing, and my writing has this forum, The Prose.

When there is a moment

Such as this

When I feel

And see

Gratitude in every movement

Every moment

I know

It’s up to me

To pay if forward

For long

Were the days

Of damp, dark depression

Of suffocating sadness

And debilitating fear

So whisper to me

Your wishes

And I will hear them

And know

If I can bring

Their fruition near

It’s not an exaggeration

To say

I owe my life to you

In every moment

The bottom

Dropped out of my life

And I free fell

Through space

And time

You

Were that spark

That one word

That one phrase

That hand up

From my darkest days

It was prestidigitation

In so many ways

You are magic

You are fire

You are all things

That I desire

The love

In the world

The answer

To hate

The blank space

We all need

To draw

Our own future

The one

We hide

Behind our eyes

And can only be seen

If one’s senses

Are keen

An extra perception

A spotless reception

I

Have a void

I seek to fill

But I know

The answer

Is not in this pill

This bottle

Or this needle

And that’s only

Because

I know you

I know you

So deeply

You infiltrated

My heart

In such a way

My day

Cannot even start

Until I acknowledge

You

Are my purpose

My reason for being

My light

In the darkness

My one

True

Love

You

Are inspiration

And

There’s nothing

Above

The humanity

In each of us

The cries of an infant

Silenced

By the knowledge

That crying does nothing

But tire oneself

A tiny heart broken

Before it has beaten

That beautiful song

Of love

Even once

Becoming a child

Who doesn't think

Or act

Like others

Their chest cavity

Devoid

Of humanity's

Tender touch

I try to remember

Hurt people

Hurt people

And what grows

In the absence of love

Is what I allow

By not

Loving enough

By not

Sharing enough

Of my blessings

By not

Looking into the eyes

Of the haunted

And seeing

My reflection

Looking away

Keeping silent

Closing my hand

Walling up my heart

That's how I allow

Hatred

To exist in the world

So I try to remember

The humanity

In each of us

I look

Even when it hurts

I listen

Even when the tears come

I reach out

Even when I want to run

Because I

Could have so easily

Been them.

My solitary hue

You crept inside

And colored it

With parts of you

You painted my life

With solid undertones

And shimmery

Overtones

And now

The whole picture

Has shifted

And I can't remember

What it looked like

Before I met you

But I know

It dripped with sadness

Where now

I taste the rain

And think of you

Because you

Taste like sunshine

And your kisses

Feel like hope

You changed the landscape

Rearranged my tableau

And now

My kisses

Tell the story

Of how I came

To love you

And never want

To let you go

But with rhyme

I find words to write

During the in between time

A friend is visiting

But we've yet to meet

I was ready at six

Yet at nine, her work day's not complete

Mucus has invaded my brain

Making my eyes twitch and my nose run

I sit here and wish for more rain

Allergy season is no fun

With time, my thoughts turn to love

I am blessed to receive so much

Still, I yearn for true love's touch

Condensed water vapor collects in the troposphere. Clouds, if you want to name the phenomenon. Sometimes, it's nice to not name things. Just let it be what it is. Condensed water vapor in the troposphere.

You can't see it from my vantage point. In the center most point of the deep, dark woods. It could be sunny up there, above the tree line. That's for the birds to know. I watch them, and their behavior lets me know, a storm is coming.

They sing of the storm. They sing in the storm. They sing to the storm, even. I should transform my heart to a bird that it may sing through the clouds gathered around. A storm is coming. It won't be in the troposphere this time. It will be in the center most point of my heart. One lightening strike to take my life, a second to restart it. How much electricity can I handle? How many lightening strikes are destined for me?

I close my eyes to gather strength. To shift perspective. I can hear the rainfall, but the canopy keeps the drops from wetting my face. My face becomes wet anyway. Stormy thoughts fall from my eyes in their own silent deluge. I open my heart to the song of sorrow, and let it sing away my troubles. Somehow, I feel stronger.

I continue to listen. The storm is steady, increasing in strength, perhaps. But I feel ready to face it. I just have to remember the way out of the woods.

The day

Stretches long

In front of me

Unbound

My soul craves

A seat in nature

Profound

My mind

Gathers silence

Resound

My body

Forgets itself

And then remembers

Astound

The changing river

And

The changing sky

The unchanging nature

Of the question

Why?

The poems

Which have escaped

My pen

The question of escape?

Simply,

When.

The taste

Of atmosphere

Assemblage of air

Forces the next question

Where?

Sinking into here

Acknowledging now

Growth blooms

On barren branches

Hardly anyone

Asks how

My mind fills

With fractions of you

In a kaliedescopic hue

I'll stop asking questions

If you answer

Who?