Gratitude List:
1. Yesterday morning’s moon, hanging above the ridge behind the River.  I know that it is always the same size, but am always caught by wonder at the way it grows as it settles close to the horizon, how intimacy with the Earth makes it seem more itself.
2. Blue bells.  I know they’re called grape hyacinths, but we always called them bluebells.  Five of them along with a few spiky leaves, in a little pitcher of Grandma Messner’s–just the thing for a tiny spot of beauty.
3. Bumblebee!  Droning drunkenly past my head two or three times.  I felt inspected.  I don’t know whether or not I passed the inspection.
4. Your voice.  Even when it’s been quiet, even when it’s been silenced, you know it’s been there all along.  It will serve you.  Of course it might be rusty at first, a little creaky around the hinges, but it is a voice of beauty and power, and it has something to say.  Wail, holler, whisper, sing, moan, cajole, laugh, stutter, kvetch.  I will listen.
5. How our stories inform each other’s stories.  May the release of each story release the shame of its secret-keeping.  May the telling of each tale offer new insight and determination to the hearer.  May the weaving of our stories together give each of us more power to enrich and enliven the telling of the stories around us.

May we walk in Beauty!