Finding Gifts

I listen to the voice within
that asks me every day:
"What gifts did you find today?"

Did you walk the shaded trail,
where last spring's Jack-in-the-Pulpit
has transformed into a scarlet cluster ?

Have you felt the 
generosity of rain
washing your skin,

and witnessed 
rain rings 
dimpling 
the surface of a lake?


In weedy fields
that thrived under summer sun,

what has become of the
Queen Anne's Lace,
now that it's winter?

Do the crows use
a different language

in December versus May?

Remember these
bee-filled blossoms of June,

that the seasons changed into 
snow-filled berries of Hawthorn?

Does astonishment
still rise up
from the familiar;

from the fertile soil
of appreciation? 

What more can you wish for?

"I yearn to hear again,
the cascading call
of the Canyon Wren;

when my breath holds,
when my eyes close,
because you are that close."

The gift given; and received.
My thanks becomes praise,
and a promise to share.
May it be so.
Amen.

© 2014 Richard Havenga

Listen to the call of the Canyon Wren. 


Photo Locations:

1, 2, 8, & 9 - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan 

3. Pickerel Lake Park - Kent County, Michigan

4, 5, 6, & 7. Grattan Township, Kent County, Michigan

10. & 11 - Wabasis Lake Park - Kent County, Michigan

12. Bryce Canyon National Park - Utah