Bonus Poem: Gratefulness

Gratefulness

There are two usual ways to deal with the things that could happen.

I mean, the things that you never expect,

Like that chest pain turning into an aortic stent,

Or those radiating twinges turning into disc surgery,

Or your growing fatigue finally being diagnosed as leukemia,

Or your knees giving out, even though you can never imagine that, 

since you can still bound up the stairs if you want, 

but they don’t last forever, you know. Don’t you?

These things, or any number of 101 damnations, could all happen. 

At least one of them surely will.

I mean, you’ll probably die,

Even though you can’t imagine that, either.

Aging comes with its perks, but also its downsides.

And you could dread the prospects of all these things,

Like first-year medical students, who,

I hear, often think that everything they read about is an affliction that they have. 

You can worry yourself to death, which is a little ironic, isn’t it?

Or, on the other hand, you can deny all this,

And go on living as if everything revolves around you,

As if you can take whatever you want from life,

Because, after all, you are special, aren’t you?

Bad things happen to other people. 

But you, above all others, deserve all the good things in life that you can grab.

And yet for some reason, I think neither of these alternatives is the best one.

For some reason, and I’m not sure how we get to it,

(Except maybe by being called to it? 

And is this what it means to have a mature concept of God?)

It turns out that the best alternative is living with an everyday gratefulness:

A cheerful humility about the world around you,

Letting go of the hurt and letting in the forgiveness,

Allowing tears to come with someone’s warm hug because you’ve been missed,

Being astonished by the life all around you, 

in the smallest square inch of dirt beneath your feet up to the giant hemlocks you walk under, 

And being amazed at the gifts of everyone from the kid in the school play 

to the cleaning lady who mops the floor 

to the doctors and P.A.s and N.P.s who are trying to figure out the next best step. 

Gratefulness. What better way to celebrate this season, or any other, for that matter? 

What better way to recognize love incarnate? 

What better way to live?

Scott L. Barton