



All day I try to say nothing but thank you,
breathe the syllables in and out with every step I
take through the rooms of my house and outside into
a profusion of shaggy-headed dandelions in the garden
where the tulips’ black stamens shake in their crimson cups.
I am saying thank you, yes, to this burgeoning spring
and to the cold wind of its changes.
Gratitude comes easy after a hot shower,
when loosened muscles work,
when eyes and mind begin to clear
and even unruly hair combs into place.
Dialogue with the invisible can go on every minute,
and with surprising gaiety I am saying thank you as
I remember who I am, a woman learning to praise something
as small as dandelion petals floating
on the steaming surface of this bowl of vegetable soup,
my happy savoring tongue.
~Jeanne Lohmann “To Say Nothing But Thank You”





It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
~Mary Oliver “Praying”



As this long winter has finally given way to spring, I am grateful to pay attention to the small things around me, to breathe my silent thanks for this privilege of being witness to the soil of this life, this farm, this faith. More days than not, I savor it as someone who is hungry and thirsty for beauty and meaning.
In my thankfulness, I must pay attention to who I am: I still yearn to grow, to bloom and fruit, harvesting what I can to share with others.
It often feels like a dialogue with the invisible.
With deep gratitude to all who come here daily to read these words and enjoy my pictures and who let me know how it makes a difference in your day.
You and I may never meet in this life yet your generous comments always make a difference to me!



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Right here with you, Emily.
with love,
Amrita Skye
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Thank you so much for all you do. ♥
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And you have been for years, thank you, Amrita!
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This is such a good one! Thank YOU!!
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Dear Emily, you and Mary have shown us a simple, yet profound, way to ‘talk’ (pray) to Him. Short, sincere and most loving and trustful, from our heart and soul, must please Him. We do not have to wait until there is a crisis and the first thing that we can think of is to talk, plead in panic terms, assuming that we will get an immediate answer. Not always (He has His own Time and Purpose for us). That has not been my experience with ‘desperate’ prayers. Invariably, He sends someone into my life, or I hear from a caring friend – or even a stranger, who perceives my panic. Very often, I turn to the ancient Hebrew Psalter and seek solace and advice. I am never disappointed. Those writers (David, et al) and the people for whom they wrote were no different than we, nearly three millennia ago.
Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) reminds us – now – in our time that, “…Nothing is new under the sun.”
(1:9).
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