Expressions of gratitude are something that I see a lot more of on Facebook these days. A few of my friends post from their gratitude journals each day, reminders of the small things they are grateful for—bluebonnets (a Texas luxury seen on every roadside in April), creative smiling children, an early harvest of leafy greens.

                         Texas Bluebonnets                                                    Indian Paintbrush from Texas                                

It’s hard for me to pry my eyes away from the news of death and sickness, and the fear for what is to come in the rest of the country. But gratitude seems to be a powerful medicine for fear and anxiety about what is happening in the world. So, I’ve been trying to number the things I am grateful for each night before I go to bed. Mary Oliver’s seven-part poem, “More Beautiful than the Honey Locust Tree Are the Words of the Lord,” from Thirst addresses this remembrance of gratitude for the gift of creation. Here is part 5:

All day I watch the sky changing from blue to blue.
For You are forever
and I am like a single day that passes.
All day I think thanks for this world,
for the rocks and the tips of the waves,
for the tupelos and the fading roses.
For the wind.
For You are forever
while I am like a single day that passes.
You are the heart of the cedars of Lebanon
    and the fir called Douglas,
the bristlecone, and the willow.