A Thanksgiving Gratitude Prayer
We feel grateful
For this holiday of gratitude
Called Thanksgiving
We feel the thanks we are giving
For the unending abundance we harvest
And what we learn along the way
We feel grateful
For the change of season
The coloring of the leaves at their peak
Of beauty, and their dying off
For trees need rest
We all need rest
From our labors toward the harvest
And what we learn along the way
We feel grateful
For those we gather with
The ones we love as our partners,
Love as our children,
Parents and grandparents
And all other family, related by blood or not,
Feel grateful for our friends,
Feel grateful for our pets
And how they show us love
And give us the opportunity to feel more love
And we feel grateful
For the people we respect
As neighbors,
Church members, co-workers,
Fellow members of arts societies
In museum cafeterias
Who dine together as family,
Rather than alone, by choice;
Or fellow residents
Of homeless shelters
Who share a meal as family,
Rather than go hungry, by circumstance
We feel grateful for this holiday of gratitude
Called Thanksgiving
We feel
The thanks we are giving
For the unending abundance we harvest
And what we learn along the way
--Lisa Randolph Diop