Gratitude

Jeff Siddhartha Crazy Horse Marr~Wielder of Words

Well, folks, a lesson in Seeing What is Around me come home to roost. I woke up this morning playing with the word Gratitude,  my mind of course going off into blue skies, and the sun shining - which it is today, after far too many days of lowering gray or no sky at all, only rain.

Then I came online and clicked around to find some beautiful new offerings from this community of poets I love so much.

When I clicked on my daughter Lisa's  site, I was totally floored at just how much talent there is in our family. Of course I have encouraged and supported Jeff's talent for decades......and have been loving Lisa's emerging poetry and prose.....but this Christmas, Jeff presented his sister Lisa with a print of Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night AND accompanied it with a poem for her, likening her to the Starry Night. Perhaps his most beautiful poem of all.

Musician Tyler Barnes - you will be hearing about him!

Under that post is a photograph of Lisa's canaries, who were eaten by her cat on Monday. These sweet-sounding singing little birds meant a great deal to Lisa, reflecting memories of love, and she was very upset about losing them. Her oldest son, Tyler, went home from work that night and composed the most hauntingly beautiful song about them. The link to the song is also on her site and I just clicked on it and listened. I am in awe. Tyler's music is very alternative full of sound effects, and I cant put my finger on  what it reminds me of.......sometimes a hint of Pink Floyd, sometimes - this song especially -  undertones of the Beatles. The song for the canaries has a repeating refrain that is absolutely Elizabethan. Incredibly beautiful, composed by a kid living in a basement suite, working at 7-11, trying to stay alive in the mean streets of the city.

Wow. So much talent all around. Wonderful to watch as it runs down through the generations and adds something with each. I am very proud of my grandsons - they have grown up with little in the way of material goods. But this has developed in them a readiness for reality that many more affluent kids miss out on. They also are the most polite, appreciative and sensitive kids I know - and with the most open minds, and original thinking. They do not have a pack mentality, they think for themselves and I think that is what I am most proud of.

So I slapped myself upside the head and wondered why I was looking outside to find things to be grateful for when, right within my family, we have people who write, who compose classical music, and alternative music, works of amazing sensitivity and beauty. Who have wonderful shining whole and inclusive hearts, wonderful senses of humor, and gratitude for the things in life that are beyond price.

Our family has had a lot of challenges. Many of us have suffered a lot, in finding our way through this life. But there have been so many gifts that have accompanied the challenges: gifts of growth, of communication, of acceptance, of unconditional love, of laughter, and of gratitude. Over time, we came to recognize that  the group of souls who clustered together in this family this lifetime  are absolutely meant to be together. The most talented among us live in  poverty. Yet, with very little in the way of finances or equipment, they tap the incredibly rich and deep wells of talent  within them,  creating works of lasting and amazing beauty. Jeff and Tyler are  two such artists.

So they are my pick for Gratitude today:)

The link to this post is here, if you wish to read a wonderful poem.On the right, click on Lost Two Babies, and listen to an exquisitely, hauntingly  beautiful song:

http://lisa-livinginreverse.blogspot.com/2010/12/stary-night.html