Grateful Community

We are grateful for the food that has graced our table, be it frugal or bountiful, for it has allowed us to persist to this moment. We are grateful for the labors we have undertaken, for they have taught us the value of hard work and perseverance. We are grateful for the warm souls that surround us, be they blood or chosen family, for they have blessed us with community and love unending, no matter how far they may be from us. We are grateful for time, the most limited of all resources, allotted differently to each so that we may appreciate each precious moment spent. We are grateful for rain that, while accompanied by gray and bleak skies, spread precious life-giving water on all equally and without discrimination. We are grateful for sunlight, without which we would not feel or see the warmth and beauty of the world around us. We are grateful for homes, ours and not ours, that offer shelter, warmth and a safe place to gather and return to. We are grateful for forgiveness, for the commonality of all men is to fail, and to forgive and be forgiven is the breaking of iron chains that shackle us to those failures. We are grateful for compassion, which the world often forgets, as love and kindness is a nurturing force to help one become their best self. God, continue to bless us from day to day and provide us that we need to Bless others with the same. Amen.