Thank you for my eyes. With them, I see a kaleidoscope of colours all around me. The reminiscent scarlet red; the vibrant and shocking yellow; the bold and brave orange; the frosty and sensible blue. I can see the creator’s hand in the designs of rippling stone; the cavernous openings into a world of stalagmites and stalactites; the smallest crevices and fissures in mother earth’s sacred bones. With my sight, I am able to see all that I’m a part of; from the most eloquent dancer to the most destitute vagabond.
Thank you for the darkness when I cannot see. When I’m not distracted by everything outside of me, my vision is directed inward. I bare witness to the creator that moves inside of me, yet comprehend about as much as I can the vastness of the ocean. Thank you for obscuring the truth when I’m not ready to see it, and allowing life to gradually clear the window of illusion so that I can take in each moment and reflect upon it. In this way my wisdom keeps up with my experience.
Thank you for my ears. With them, I hear the titans of our solar system approach and disengage in cacophony and harmony as the music of the spheres. I hear the sweet melodies of the creator played thru deft hands, plucking taut strings on the most exquisite lyres; sung thru a thousand voices of the celestial choir, all yearning to create an intimate relationship with thee. I can hear the white noise of the crowd, never forgetting my connection to the world. I can hear the secret of a whisper that I’ve been entrusted to keep by someone I hold dear.
Thank you for silence, when I’ve become overwhelmed with being human. When all voices cease to speak, and I drop into the void of nothingness and move ever closer to my creator. I have relief from my own mind talking and am immersed in the depth of solitude. Thank you for my aloneness when it’s only the creator’s message I seek.
Thank you for my tongue. I have tasted the sweetness of generosity, the sourness of love lost, the bitterness of envy and saltiness of passion. I have feasted on earth’s delicacies; the robust root of ginger; the lip pinching lemon; the charm of sugar cane and the treasure of the sea.
Thank you for the taste of hunger when I remember that I’m never alone in my need for nourishment.
I’m grateful for every celebration, every feast, every taste of the creator’s recipe in each unique human being whose stories I savour, whose emotions I endure, whose whit I adore. May I not forget to paint my words with the strokes of candor and empathy, integrity and perception.
Thank you for the somatic experience of my skin. The softness of a Persian kitten to lull to sleep in my lap; the prickly cactus who hides her nectar beneath her needles; the temptation of caressing the voluptuous in human form I so admire. Every receptor is electrified with sensation, that I, fortunate, can indulge in the shape and texture of all the creator’s sculptures, both animate and inanimate. I give and receive in pleasure because of this body’s outer shell, and so blessed am I.
Thank you for pain that reminds me of just how alive I am. Thank you for each and every skinned knee, for each bruise, for all my broken pride. I could never learn to be wise if it weren’t for my mistakes and my foibles. Thank you for my vulnerability without which I could not measure my life.
Thank you for the effort required to wield these senses which teaches me respect and appreciation, but most of all, thank you for the deep sense of knowing that the creator is alive within me.
A Sensible Thank You by Sean Michael Imler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
