by Laurie Gudim
A Litany of Thanksgiving
My dear God, holy and undivided Trinity,
For comforting me
For challenging me
For balancing my lopsided perspectives
For inspiring me
For dismantling me
For surprising me
I thank you.
For the diversity and intricate complexity of creation
the breathtaking interconnection of earthworms and redwoods
the lives of stars and distant planets,
bacteria and protozoa
For tide pools and whales, pelicans and sandpipers, porpoises, starfish and crabs,
the barren landscapes of mountaintops and the lush abundance of rain forests
For new ecosystems that are forming and old ecosystems that are dying
For raccoons and porcupines, sparrows and flickers, antelope
and coyotes and wolves
I thank you.
For your embodiment in human form and your love that is the glue of existence
For all humans with their multifarious understandings and their unique abilities and hang ups
For my partner, who, after you, is my greatest treasure
For my family, whose tangled psychological manifestations bring me joy and consternation,
and who are also great treasures
For my friends, whose love and challenge I could not live without
For my enemies, who confound me with their alien values and desires
For all those who need me
and all those whom I need
I thank you.
For all the ways in which I am allowed to serve you
For the deep silence in which I often find you
For all those times when I am able to let go and to forgive
For all those miracles of new understanding and insight with which you gift me
For the desire to hear you and the impulse to love you,
which is your Spirit working in me
For hope
For gratitude itself
For all those things I have not thought to name.
I thank you.
I thank you.
I thank you
You are my mainstay, my bedrock, my awakening and my fulfillment,
my hope in the darkest times and my joy in the brightest.
A thousand times, thank you.
Amen
Laurie Gudim is a writer and religious iconographer who lives in Fort Collins, CO. You can view some of her work at Everyday Mysteries.