Passage Twelve: With Thanksgiving
Money is involved,
Keeping the lights on
And the bills paid
And the family clothed and fed.
Health is involved,
Strengths and weaknesses,
Pains and incapacities,
And aging.
People are involved,
Their needs and their complexities,
Their hungers and their mysteries.
Children are involved,
And all of their demands on us,
Our hopes for them,
Our successes and our failures in providing.
We are involved
In all these complications and in more.
We are bound and blindfolded
And pushed and pulled from all directions.
One who thinks he masters,
Has lordship over and control,
Is like one who holds his breath,
Closes his eyes, and holds on tightly,
When there is nothing to hold onto.
If we are wise, we are humble.
We do not sit in judgment
Over things we do not understand.
We look upon more gently.
We hold with open hands.
We speak and act with generosity.
I was touched yesterday.
An elderly man came into our store
Needing new batteries in two watches.
A coworker greeted him,
But he asked for me,
Because I had helped him before.
We talked about New Mexico,
Where he and I had both once lived,
And about his wife of fifty-five years
Who had passed away a month ago.
One is not made proud by caring.
One is made humble,
As it elevates all things
In importance.
Caring is not afraid to face
And it is not afraid to speak to.
It knows there is light and warmth in it.
It shines and it shows
In how it looks upon and holds
With thanksgiving.
