Gratitude

I have been thinking about gratitude today.  Mostly because a most wonderful friend of mine shed some light for me this weekend.  She always has a way of doing this, and then two weeks later I'll say, "Remember that time when you said...." Usually, she doesn't remember, which goes to show, perhaps (or, I know) how genuine she truly is. 

Anyways, gratitude, according to Courtney, is wonderful because if it is real and in you, you are not stuck in the past, nor in anticipation of the future.  Instead, you are fully thankful for the here and now.  

I think gratitude helps us to be present. And if secured, it might just turn into the realest kind of hope. 

To remember, she gave me the poem below, it's by W.S. Merwin and taped to my wall. 

So, here's to gratitude:  

with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with all the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is.