How can you not be thankful for your mother and father?
How can you not be grateful for the Earth beneath your feet?
The Sky above your spine?
With our whole lives we try to say thank you,
though sometimes it seems this endless succession
of gifts slips by too soon;
so we backtrack
and follow our steps left from where we were
in an attempt to find source,
the ultimate gift-giver,
selfless in every extent,
because we know that if we may say thank you
to That compassion
then all will be released;
all will be welcomed.

Here is the difficulty;
for in our usual acceptance of gifts
we return in kind,
but in a blessing so subtle
there is no hand to shake,
no body to embrace,
and so we light incense,
we make sacrifices and say,
“look what I don’t have,
look what is once again belonging to that great unspeakable something!”

Then the realization
that there truly is no difficulty.
That the great gift giver
is no idol to be worshipped,
but an example to be followed.