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The Solace of Gratitude

7/22/2016

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PictureWe sought the solace of Mt Jefferson, site of my very first backpacking trip 36 years ago, to celebrate Amber's birthday and mark her Dad's 81st, 4 months after his death
The radio, following the Republican National Convention, offered the usual recitation of the dismal: violence, division, cynicism... so many causes for despair.

Then, a lifeline: an interview titled Finding Solace in a Chaotic World. The Takeaway host John Hockenberry spoke with Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, presidential advisor and former New York City Police chaplain, a first responder in 9/11 and mother to two black men in their early 20s.

From her years on the front lines, she offered this:

"The thing about solace: you take it without permission."
​

"Strengthen yourself for the struggle. You have to have those moments."

I've been seeking solace in wild places this summer, in time with the children in my life, and in the practice of gratitude. 

To that end, I'm pleased to share a poem for our times, written in 1988 but especially apt for our current news cycles, presented recently by poetry-whisperer Danna Schmidt, a gifted Celebrant colleague from Washington State.

Thanks
by W.S. Merwin

Listen 
with the night falling we are saying thank you 
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings 
we are running out of the glass rooms 
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky 
and say thank you 
we are standing by the water thanking it 
smiling by the windows looking out 
in our directions


back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging 
after funerals we are saying thank you 
after the news of the dead 
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you 
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators 
remembering wars and the police at the door 
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you 
in the banks we are saying thank you 
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you
with the animals dying around us 
our lost feelings we are saying thank you 

​with the forests falling faster than the minutes 
of our lives we are saying thank you 
with the words going out like cells of a brain 
with the cities growing over us 
we are saying thank you faster and faster 
with nobody listening we are saying thank you 
we are saying thank you and waving 
dark though it is
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  • Holly Pruett Celebrant LLC – Creative Life Ceremonies from Cradle to Grave
  • Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant ® | Funeral & Wedding Officiant | Interfaith Minister
  • holly@hollypruettcelebrant.com | 503.348.0967 | Portland, Oregon, USA
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