. . . Poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are the shadows
drifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them . . .

— from Valentine for Ernest Mann
by Naomi Shihab Nye

On this Thankful Thursday, a burst of springlike sunshine is warming the cockles of my heart. Yes, cockles.

In a fit of faith, I broke out the warm-weather wardrobe, which on the chilly Oregon Coast means shoes without socks. I'm thankful for these shoes (a bargain snagged last spring), the weather that allows them, and the poet Naomi Shihab Nye who finds poems in all places.

Because appreciation increases joy, it's Thankful Thursday. Joy expands and contracts in direct relation to our sense of gratitude. Tell me, what makes your world expand?