Just like that, a year has come and gone and a new one has just begun. On a fundamental level, things will be pretty much the same – the sun will rise and the sun will set; everything else is up for grabs. We will again meet challenges; some of us will stumble and fall. Yet there is much to give thanks for; to echo the words of Emily Dickinson, “I find ecstasy in living – the mere sense of living is joy enough.” Below are six more fragments of thoughts from various poets, writers and thinkers, who collectively make a powerful case for having a heart of gratitude because the problems that life brings to us is but shadows that point us to the light.

Last year changed its seasons subtly,
stripped its sultry winds
for the reds of dying leaves, let
gelid drips of winter ice melt
onto a warming earth
and urged the dormant bulbs
to brave the pain of spring.

We, loving, above the whim
of time, did not notice. Alone,
I remember now.

~ Maya Angelou, poet and writer

I count, this first day of another year,
what remains. I have a mountain,
a kitchen, two hands.

~ Jane Hirschfield, poet

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years,  and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! My extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

~ Henry David Thoreau, naturalist/writer

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

~ The Bible (Book of Matthew 6: 28-30)

SIX THINGS TO BE GRATEFUL FOR

Time
Health
Peaceful solitude
Slow mornings
A fertile mind
A house full of love.

~ Anon