GRATITUDE TODAY

Dear Readers, 

Nine years ago I did not think I would be celebrating this birthday. I had been diagnosed with a rare cancer (my 4th battle with it), but the geniuses at Massachusetts General Hospital had other ideas, and they used medical science to help me battle this cancer, and here I am.

I learned through the years that I've lived with Lynch Syndrome that the most precious gift we can give ourselves is gratitude. With gratitude comes love and peace and all the other positive emotions that see us through our most difficult times in life.

Today is a birthday I never thought I'd reach. But here I am, filled with gratitude for you, too, my readers, and love.

Remember 

by Joy Harjo 

Remember the sky that you were born under, 

know each of the star’s stories. 

Remember the moon, know who she is. 

Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, 

that is the strongest point of time. 

Remember sundown and the giving away to night. 

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled 

to give you form and breath. 

You are evidence of her life, and her mother’s,  and hers. 

Remember your father. He is your life, also. 

Remember the earth whose skin you are: 

red earth, black earth, yellow earth, 

white earth brown earth, we are earth. 

Remember the plants, trees, animal life 

who all have their tribes, their families, their histories, too. 

Talk to them, listen to them. 

They are alive poems. 

Remember the wind. Remember her voice. 

She knows the origin of this universe. 

 Remember you are all people and all people are you. 

 Remember you are this universe and this universe is you. 

 Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you. 

 Remember language comes from this. 

 Remember the dance language is, that life is. 

 Remember.