Grateful

Through one bad week (comparably) for the United States and the continuing bubbles of violence and apathy elsewhere in the world, I find it disturbing that I haven't said enough thanks for all the blessings that I have received.

I am grateful, knowing that I am on borrowed time, that I still greet each day with good health and an opportunity to be of service.

I am grateful that I have found true friends here in Saudi Arabia, people who are passionate about what they believe in and back these passions up with their actions. I am inspired just to have encountered such true generosity of spirit.

I am grateful that whatever personal tragedies that beset the people I care about, they hold their heads up high and take pride that they still persevere despite the many obstacles.

I am on borrowed time. One day, without my knowing and without any forewarning, the Lord will come and invite me to join Him. I would like to thank Him for the little things I sometimes take for granted in my life...

For the gift of other people, even those I may not actually like
For the ability to be moved by others, and to move them in return
For the ability to respond to another person, and to give that person joy
For the ability to speak, to express myself
For the ability to laugh and to cry

Thank you Lord, thank you. Thank you for all your gifts to me.

Thank you for my eyes. Thank you for giving me a window to this lovely world. When I look out into this world, may I appreciate more the blue of the sky, the green of the grass, the rainbow, the sunset. Thank you for the beauty that I see, that I may see the people I love and the joy in the faces of people.

Thank you for my tongue. While I may not be as gifted as those whom I admire, I have been able to express myself in plain speech and even in song. How many times have I forgotten the value of conversation - how they have shaped my relationships. Thank you for the joy of eating, one blessing that I shouldn't (but just have) indulge in so often.

Thank you for my ears. Sounds are the hue of my existence - amid all the noise in this world, there is still the incandescence of good jokes, of being empathetic to others, of good counsel from others, of words of appreciation and love. For music that flows within me and through me, and for the song in my heart I always hear.

Thank you for my hands. For someone who is more into thinking than doing, I am prouder of the work of my hands. Grant that my hands do more in helping others, in shaking hands out of true appreciation. To hold, to carry, to grasp --- my hands are the way I interact with my universe, and quite literally, to take charge of my life.

Thank you for giving me my whole being ---
For my ability to sense, understand, and appreciate this world
For my capacity to need other people and to lend a hand for their needs
For being able to take and of to give, of being able to share and to receive.

Thank you Lord, thank you. Thank you for all your gifts to me.

Lord, thank you.

Thank you for this universe. Thank you for the quiet spaces in my life. Thank you for lending me this time on earth. Thank you for this one life, the only life I would have to live. Thank you for being there, Lord --- today you may be the stranger who helps me to my feet, tomorrow you may be the life-partner I have always longed for. Thank you for listening to me, for giving me a part in your Plan.

Thank you Lord.

I only ask that you forgive me for not being as thankful of these gifts, or for not being able to give due regard to those around me, who surely have received their blessings in full just as I have. It is only because much is expected of me that I have come to disappoint. My life is in your hands; grant that I take full responsibility always for the wrongs that I have done.

In the name of your Son, my Brother, who has taught me on giving thanks.

Inspiration for these thanks is drawn from the Prayer Book of the De La Salle Brothers in the Philippines.