*Gratitude* by Anna Kamieńska, from *Astonishments: Selected Poems*

I wasn’t looking for gratitude but — like keys, reading glasses, the name of your best friend’s cousin — I found it while searching for something else. I was on the hunt for a book: The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda.

I searched my shelves and all the drawers jammed with misfits things. Deep in the darkness of paperclips, chapstick and old magazines, I found Astonishments by Anna Kamieńska. In a quick flip, the page opened easily to Gratitude.

This is life unfolding at its best: small random discoveries of pleasure.

I was full of thanks like a Sunday alms-box.

I read this poem and rushed into my own list:

Thank you for the cherry orchard laden with sweet globes of joy. Thank you for the lavender bending to the bee. Thank you for good books on long flights. Thank you for headphones that muffle the world. Thank you for asking me anything, everything, nothing at all. Thank you lungs and legs and dogged determination. . .

Gratitude is a scattered homeless love

Yes, exactly. Thank you, Anna.

I never found the Neruda book. I’ve bought and given away this book so many times I’ve lost track. But now I have the chance to buy it again, and fall in love and discovery once more.

Also, don’t you love these titles — Astonishments, The Book of Questions — ? My gratitude grows!

It’s Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to express appreciation for people, places, things, and more. Attention attracts gratitude, and gratitude expands joy. Please join me.

What are you thankful for today?

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The world turns on words. Thank you for reading & writing.

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