Gratitude

One post back, I wrote about the work that keeps everything going, and about how - in this society at least - it is so easy to be blind to that work. But we don't have to be, of course. We can learn to see the cycles and the lives that make our own possible.

A lot of cultures are smarter than ours about ways to remember to see what it is that supports us. Ceremony, ritual, art, and prayer are all ways to do this. I've been thinking about this all week, but thinking about it is not the same as doing it; thinking about the importance of noticing and being grateful is not the same as noticing and being grateful.

So here: one tiny drop of gratitude in a day of meetings, emails, and deadlines.


Little Bird Business

Yesterday the high hill where I walk
belonged to the little birds
who were going about their little bird business
in the pine tops and on the fence posts.
I believe there is nothing more black than chickadee-black,
nothing more white than chickadee-white.
Half an ounce of feathers and flesh can move, can sing, can call the world to attention.
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