For these I give thanks....

To the One who is the source of all that is good... I give thanks.

For my life: so rich and surprising, filled with challenges, yes, and also the strength to see them through.

For my faith: the faith of our mothers and fathers, handed down through more generations than we can accurately count, beauty so ancient and so new, the well of the Spirit from which to drink deep each day.

For my family: the way we have loved and shaped each other, even by hurting each other, and for the ongoing sense of love and support that is always there.

For my children: who continually surprise and delight me (even as they unnerve and, yes, even scare me), whose presence makes both my own life and that of the world immeasurably richer and more colorful.

For my Beloved: who can unfold me with a look or a touch, who knows me better than I know myself, who challenges me into wholeness and health, who delights in me and calls me "good," who is herself the most loving, the most thoughtful, the most devoted partner one could dream up.

For my friends: you know who you are. In real and virtual life, you give me strength, encouragement, and joy.

For my work: the privilege of serving as I have been called to serve, to stand at the table and break the bread and pour the cup, to splash the water of life liberally on all who are called to join us, to hold the fragile and papery hands of those who have seen more years than I can imagine, to pray with and for people, to welcome the children into the history and the mysteries and the day to day joy.

For all I have failed to name here, but which gives me life, and promise of life, and hope....

For all these and more I give thanks.