Shared Joy

Joy in the Morning

“…All this is God,

right here in my pea-green house

each morning,

and I mean,

though I often forget,

to give thanks,

to faint down by the kitchen table

in a prayer of rejoicing

as the holy birds at the kitchen window

peck into their marriage of seeds.

The joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,

dies young.”

                                  Anne Sexton

                                  “Welcoming Morning”

         I saw a piece on the CBS news last night about a young man graduating from college.  He was paraplegic because of crashing his car when he was a drunk adolescent.  Doctors in California had created for him a mechanical device that allowed him to walk across the stage like the rest of his graduating class to receive his diploma.  I sat and bawled like a baby.  How often I forget to be thankful for all the gifts God has given me---simple gifts like legs that work, a roof over my head, food on the table and a bed in which to sleep. 

         Right now in Alabama many people still sleeping in shelters, eating what is given to them, and expressing gratitude for their very lives.  In Vicksburg, people are looking out at miles of farm land, homes and businesses swamped by the floodwaters of the muddy Mississippi river, and all they can say is, ‘we’re grateful we got out—we’ll rebuild when the water recedes.’  Through all of the devastation that has occurred across the South this spring, I have yet to hear anyone embittered by their losses.  A Louisiana woman in the flood path just yesterday spoke of the river as a neighbor---‘it gives and it takes and we have learned to live with it.’  She was in her eighties and talking of rebuilding, “All my boys are here; they’ll help me.”  I’m simply amazed by this resilience and hopefulness in the face of overwhelming loss.  How is it that in our darkest hour, the very best in us rises to the surface?

         “All this is God, right here in my pea-green house!”  We look around us and suddenly priorities sort themselves out.  Life, loved ones, friends, family—these are gifts not to be taken for granted.  When we realize this, joy is all we can feel.

                                  In all things give thanks,

                                  Jane