06 November 2008

Notes on Gratitude


This week I learned from my close personal friend, J.M Coetzee
(the Nobel-Prize winning South African novelist),
that Gratitude and Pomegranate are
Sister Words.

Sisters.
Sharing hairbrushes and sleeping in bunk beds
and making up secret hand signals that only the other one knows:
touch nose
tuck hair behind ear
tug lobe twice

Somehow I’m not surprised.
I see the ruby-red orbs
ripe from sun and round with summer juice
weighing down the branch with impatience,
satisfied
fulfilled
waiting to unzip the skin, the peel, and burst
with thankfulness.

My own heart-rind can barely contain the love-sown seeds inside,
stacked on pulpy bunk beds.

Dearest friends, I am so blessed to be the daily recipient of your love, prayers, cards, notes, letters, emails, blog comments, Facebook posts, and chocolate. Thank you for making my adventure abroad an experiment in gratitude! I am swallowed up in it. Your encouragement lines my heart and, as you can see, my walls. Words don’t do justice to how indebted I am to your kindness.

Special thanks go out to Stephen, Bonnie (+ Mystery Baby) and Miss Charlotte; the Green House Girlz; Laurie and Grandma Jan; Michael Dallas; Theodore the III; and, of course, the original mavericks: Mom-Dad-Hope-Paden-Grandma-Granddad-and-Auntie-Marta.

2 comments:

AshleyL. said...

I have been eating a lot of pomegranate lately, and thinking of you. This post made me smile, alot.

AshleyL. said...

ps. Look at the pomegranate picture on my flickr page. I dedicate it to you :)