Favorite

Gratitude

I don’t make 
New Year’s resolutions anymore,
None I’d keep,
nor even remember,
come February.
Instead, I pick a word.
Just one word.
My word this year
is Compassion.
It’s the one I chose to
remind me of
who and how and what
I wish to be,
every day, all day.
Last year, it was Generosity,
a good and maybe grand one,
noble in its intent,
heartfelt and true.
It worked pretty well.
Opportunities to give
arose in bunches:
my money, my time, my love.
But the big one,
my favorite,
was two years ago,
my first attempt at this.
Gratitude it was,
and it is the best
of all the other qualities,
based on one’s experience
of having enough.
The Universe loves Gratitude,
is Itself an abundant giver,
and likes to be appreciated.
Hope might have been
a decent choice, but
there’s doubtful expectation there.
Peace is a good one too,
filled with faith,
but Gratitude has it all,
overflowing with quiet delight.
In the quantum soup
of the visible and unseen,
it is the satisfying wholeness.
It is how I can be thankful
for this life, this body, this space,
how I can be like a child
on a beach,
seeing the vast unknown