in gratitude

If I were to thank those who have offered their gifts in a way that have touched me deeply and informed my own capacities, I would have to include the carpenter bee. Making her perfect circles exquisitely to the shape and size of her round chunky body teaching me how nature is not wasteful.  It is in her nature to participate with resources, using only what she needs, nothing more, to allow her to share her gift of pollination. It would have to include the wildflowers in the desert who, as if it were possible, clapped their petals against the dry earth one day in silence to loudly call me to notice their beauty, and when I turned to behold these friends I had missed for so long, my tears through my laughter, wet their roots. It would have to include Hannah the most magnificent being I may have ever met. When my labrador, Maggie,  had a seizure and attacked this great and powerful Pyrenees, she sat in stillness, understanding the aggression for what it was, bringing presence to that which would incite reactivity in the old world weak in integrity and options. Oh and I would have to thank Maggie herself. She whispered to me that all there is is love, and I believed her. I would have to thank my horse Star who showed me that her pain lingered as I held it in my gaze so deeply wanting to make it change. But when she invited me to simply be with her, and her to be with me, she took matters into her own, intelligent body and was free from all suffering. I could thank my parents for loaning me the money to go to acupuncture school. But so much more I have to thank them for getting so many things wrong that I found deep resources in the mud of southern soil. I have to thank Lyme disease which showed me all life is precious and sentient and to never doubt my self healing ability. I have to thank Huasteca Mountain and Apu Ausangate and family and friends and .... It is in these precious gifts I have come to allowing beauty.