Today, I offer you one of my favorite poems. While it’s not about thanksgiving, exactly, it is filled with gratitude.

Why I Wake Early
by Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

Who better than Mary Oliver to remind us to be grateful for the simple, everyday joys of life . . . like the sun in our faces! Even when it’s pouring rain outside. (Like it is here, this morning.)

Today’s poem is the title poem from Mary Oliver’s 2004 collection, Why I Wake Early. Click here for more information about Mary Oliver.

“This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before.”
— Maya Angelou