A Very Partial List

I once heard that among its other well-documented benefits, gratitude can create a sense of safety when you feel afraid. In my experimentation so far, I’d say this checks out. For you, dear reader, I am so very grateful.

Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash

A Very Partial List

For all the miles I crawled before I took my first step, I give thanks. For all the books I’ve read that I can’t remember, I give thanks. For all the sunny winter days still left on my dance card, I give thanks.

For the grass that fed the sheep that were sheered for the merino wool spun and knit into the soft socks that now warm my feet, I am grateful. For the countless cups of coffee someone else brewed for me, for the someone else who delivers letters on my behalf, for each breath of the someone who put clean sheets on a bed in a hotel room where I once spent a restless, anxious night, I am grateful.

For the ample supply of public bathrooms, and the over-abundance of cords for charging electronic devices, and the fact that there are people who still buy books of poetry, I am grateful. For the deep breaths that kept coming while I slowly grieved those old losses: thank you. For the belly laughs that will buoy me until the next loss hits: thank you. For every perfectly ordinary day of which I have no memory: Thank you. For the alphabet, and light switches, and mason jars, candlesticks. For chokecherry blossoms and meadowlarks, woodsmoke and crayons: Thank you. For the way snow collects on pine boughs, and how those boughs bounce when it falls.  For polished wood banisters and wild irises and skylights and warning labels. For foil wrapped chocolates and wagging dog tails and reading glasses at the ready and for all the ways our wrists can bend and hold: thank you. For sidewalk cracks, chipper nurses, crooked smiles, crooked paths, windmills, windbags, puddles, toggles, jam, salt. For all of these! But even more — for all the things I keep failing to notice, the people and the objects, the givens, that go on giving themselves away, anyway, everyday. Thank you. Thank you. I am so grateful. So very. So grateful that there is so much that I have no way to know and name and give thanks for it all.