It's Thankful Thursday!
Because life is full and gratitude thin, please join me in a pause to express appreciation for people, places, things & more.
1.
Poem in Your Pocket Day
All day, I've basked in the secret joy of Poem in Your Pocket Day, my favorite "holiday" and part of National Poetry Month. Until just now.
In my flurry, I realized that my favorite day of the year was actually yesterday. I had missed it! No need to fret; consider it a long holiday. I still carry this poem in my heart (and the friend who shared it with me):
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
— Rainer Maria Rilke
Book of Hours, I 59
2.
A Pickle
Grace is losing her words. Long ago she lost her hearing and now her ability to speak is slipping too. Though her eyes are bright, when she talks it's murmur and mew with a round of babble.
Today, though, while "chatting" her words are suddenly clear: "You are a pickle in the mud," she tells me, "and I love you."
3. Lilacs
Spring's sudden sign. A burst of fragrance, fleeting.
In small petals, the day blooms.
What are you thankful for today?
* As always, names are changed to protect privacy.