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Monday, October 9, 2023

On Gratitude and Wonder

 


If you knew this was your last day,
or week, or month,
how would you spend it?
What would you tell people?
Would you pick up the phone more often,
speak words of love and appreciation?

Would you sit at the shore for hours,
watching the forever waves
endlessly advancing and retreating,
until, behind your eyelids,
they became engraved forever
on your heart?

Here’s how it is:
we have this moment, now.
No more are promised.
The ferryman will come.
We knew this
when we bought the ticket.
He will glide beside the dock,
and nod: we will step in.
It will be too late then
to change
what might have been.

Here’s what I really want you to know:
I carry it all in my heart: summer days
under my grandma’s weeping willow,
teardrops and song under a teenage moon,
young motherhood, with all the struggle,
and the laughter, all those leggy children
laughing in the sun; I carry it all,
the coming home to myself,
my great leap to the sea,
the big black wolf who taught me
all that love could be.

I carry it all with me: the gifts,
the gratitude, the sorrow,
(for the recipe, my friends,
has always included sorrow.)
It has been more than I ever dreamed,
if not all that it could be.
My heart is full to the brim
with gratitude and wonder,
should I depart Tomorrow.


for my prompt at What's Going On? Gratitude, which posts at 11 a.m. eastern time on Wednesday. Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends. We count our blessings, one, two, three, four. I wrote this poem before the latest bombs started falling. I struggle to find words for the state of humanity at the moment, so will let this poem stand , for the sake of the things I am always grateful for. But hard to wax poetic on gratitude this particular week. I will write a more relevant poem soon, if I can muster the words.


16 comments:

  1. Happy Thanksgiving, Sherry! You have gratitude down pat. You carry it inside you in your heart. You savor your memories and enjoy each day! That is all a person can do!

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  2. I do feel so grateful for all the wonderful experiences I have had, the gifts I have been given - like living in this place I love so much, not once, but twice. When one is made happy by the simple things, there is always so much to be grateful for.

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  3. "The ferryman will come.
    We knew this
    when we bought the ticket."
    Beautiful. Setting gratitude on the end of life helps the perspective. Would I count my moments of terror or those of peace? Peace for sure. Gladness, and sorrow too. But not the entire scale of human error for which I am sorry. Instead, gentle and kind, I will simply be grateful for life.

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  4. One could feel this breath of gratitude in every line, Sherry. "It has been more than I ever dreamed," I would love to think of 'Life' like this. This particular line reveals a beautiful frame of mind.
    Happy Thanksgiving, Sherry!

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  5. (for the recipe, my friends,
    has always included sorrow.) Absolutely... and the poem just mirrors your very big heart, Sherry. When someone champions life and earth like you do, they also inspire us to embrace life with all its flaws and be grateful for it... thank you.

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  6. Yes you are special Sherry...Beautiful poem giving thanks for all the good things in your life. Happy Thanksgiving ! Rall

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  7. A beautiful contemplative poem - and although written before this latest horror - particularly apt - to reflect on endings and the luxury of a potentially natural and peaceful passing from here to there.

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  8. Thank you, friends, for your lovely comments.

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  9. This makes me realize we cannot take life for granted. Have to life each day as if it were the last

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  10. Happy Thanksgiving, Sherry! I enjoyed your poem of gratitude and wonder, which got me thinking. I would definitely want to spend it with my grandsons after writing a final poem.

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  11. Maybe just sitting by the shore. Maybe that is it. Maybe by a fire.

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  12. That's beautiful Sherry. A heart full of love and gratitude is such a wonderful thing. Sitting by the shore would be a great way to spend one's final day.

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  13. What a wonderful poem!! I love it all, each word. Thank you Sherry, it is just right!!

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  14. Sherry I am not anonymous/ annell

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  15. Sherry, this is lovely. It happens that my husband's mom died last Friday. So this waas not only welcome, but it was needed by both me and Lex. Bless you. Love, Amy

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