I am grateful

In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you,
But sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art. Rumi

It is Thanksgiving Sunday here in Canada and I am cooking dinner for those I love and care for. As family and friends, sixteen of us will gather at the dinner table tonight and share in laughter, good times and gratitude -- not to mention good food too!

Today, I am grateful for my home where I am safe and secure. A place where I am surrounded by love. Where hearts are peaceful, love flourishes and spirits soar with every breath. A place where, no matter how dark the world outside or within me, I find solace and comfort, support and love.

I am grateful for the electricity that lights my desk, fuels my computer, heats my stove and cools my fridge.

I am grateful for the weeping birch tree outside my window, denuded of leaves, that in the dark looks like tendrils of feathers hanging in the air, gently stirring in a soft morning breeze.

I am grateful for my coffee, warm and rich, foamed milk steaming.

I am grateful for this place where I write every morning. This place where unseen eyes read and connect and sometimes share their thoughts and feelings. This place where I am part of a circle far greater, far wider than I can perceive, a circle of people creating their best every day.

I am grateful for this life I live, so rich and vibrant, so many textured hues of laughter and tears and joy and energy and sorrow and love and compassion and a rainbow coloured arc of emotions that flow through each and every moment of my day.

I am grateful for all the comforts of my life. For those who create them. For those who set up shops so I can purchase them.

I am grateful for the bugs crawling under the grass. The birds flittering in trees.

I am grateful for my wonder dog, Ellie, who softens my heart with every breath and Marley, the Great Cat, who makes me smile with his insistence he is the centre of the universe.

To all my fellow Canadians, Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful for your presence here on my journey.