a thanks ..

yellow and orange and shades of red and brown and used-to-be-green colour the walls
walls you can walk into and through
enchanted again
   thanks

and a zillion of those colours just zigzagged down from where they used to hang out
tagging each other on the way
gently sounding as they go
   thanks

the sun walks up invisible stairs into blue
where birds soar and angels dip
   thanks

today, despite the awful hidden history that attaches like bloody leeches
folks will join themselves around tables arduously laden with 'share' in many delectable flavours and (hopefully) try to find commonality among themselves
   thanks

and for those who have noone to sup with
or no supper
i pray You a special gracious benevolence on their soul this day
and a full belly
   thanks

for forgiveness and mercy and Your lovingkindness all the days of my life
   thanks

.. and assist me in this: even as the leaves in all their varied shapes and colours join in such glorious display, may my heart be open to all your creatures, even the ones that scare me or irritate me around the table
   i'm just one leaf
      thanks


may the least be especially blessed, the lowest, the last, and in this may tomorrow be for them a new Thanksgiving, and the day after, and ..
   thanks

for this set-aside day of reminder to be thankful, dropped poignantly in the middle of a very terrifying prospect of what the future holds for america and for our friends everywhere
   thanks

the blood we share
this planet we share
the likeYouness we share

the very thin line that separates
   hostility and hatred from embrace
      amid all the un-otherness of us
may we together smudge its defining separating as our feet cross over to receive each other
   even as You receive us
      thanks

may those in illness
those shut-in
those who feel so very alone
those without viable family
those in prison and in prisons of their own making
those innocents facing new life without parents
those who will try to sleep in the shelter of a bridge tonight, or steel themselves against the icy glare of the stars
those who flee their homeland, bombed bruised bewildered ..
.. may they each somehow sense the sheer pervasive grace and beauty of You and know they are indeed loved
   thanks

thank You, o God, for You
thank You for Your unveiling in Jesus
thank You for caring in such a way that You put yourself at great risk for us very unseeing and unthankful people
   when all You asked from us is love
   because You love, regardless

i thank You