Gratitude for the Whole Package

 

I took a nap and woke up 50,
blinked twice, hit 60,
swung my legs off the couch,
boom, 67 (which I hit yesterday).

Gets one thinking about life.
How not a lot turns out as anticipated,
or even, a good percentage, as hoped for.

But gratitude for the whole package
is still the best strategy for sanity.

I don’t mean gratitude for unrelenting pain,
or evil (there’s no silver lining),
or the sorrow that kills — that would be madness.
Or even all this progress
(so-called), that never delivers on its promise.

I mean gratitude
to be held upon this earth
by a picture of a forest pond, posted by a friend,
or the long dry grass in the coulee,
that transforms your average breeze
into a Mombasa orchestra,
or this warm November wind,
here in Calgary’s foothills,
and the flashing white undersides of wings
(some bird I can’t name), climbing higher,
turning to silver.

More, gratitude for a friend,
for a travelling partner who says you matter —
that’s pretty much gold.

Speaking of life on earth,
what else is it but a quest, seems to me, for God,
whoever, whatever, God (god) is to you — 
we all worship, we all serve something.

But trust me on this (I’m of age):
you can go climb the sacred mountain,
stand knocking at the gates
of Wat Pho’s mystical depths,
and still, a deer grazing on the lawn,
or a brush with a bee hive,
or your own shadow,
cantilevered over a field of snow,
is divinity enough.

Proof enough, we were made 
only slightly lower than angels.

Which means
there will be a day when our leaf falls.
Until then, we’re here,
keeping company with chickadees –
their mere-ness achingly like ours,
their song, timeless.

 

26 Comments

  1. Beautiful. Thank you for this wisdom that comes with time, for which there is no substitute. There is something calming and assuring in it. It says “stop striving and take it in. Enjoy the subtleties.” Grateful for this as I celebrate hitting midlife:)

  2. Sometimes “the flashing white undersides of wings” stab me with such poignancy, I feel faint with joy. I am but one year behind you in years, becoming a bit maudlin, which suits my white hair, I think. The whole package contains much to be grateful for. I am grateful for your poem.

  3. I’ve been mired in high school today, writing memoir and giving effusive thanks for being in my sixties and for all the attention life has given me beyond that cocoon so long ago and far away. Yet I would not notice those unnamed wings without the cultivation of all that has come before. You understand this. And you pay attention. And you bless us with this gift.

  4. Your lovely and lively images…the forest pond, the wind playing through the grass, the freedom of the birds, the shadows on snow, the deer grazing so near and the buzzing of bees and of course the dear and ever-present chickadees who seem to come to keep us company…all that pull us into the moment, and draw out the long Alleluia of gratitude! It is joy to imagine them where you live. Thank you, Stephen.

  5. “Gratitude for the whole thing…a strategy for sanity. ” Thanks for the perspective.
    I hope you have a great birthday. Right behind you.
    Al

  6. Simply sublime, Steve – reflecting on all the “what-ifs” I’ve collected and on my “mere-ness”, somehow a comforting thought!

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