I give thanks for Brian my friend,
Who taught me to have just a little faith,
Most of which I turned into a lot of hope after his end.
I give thanks that woes and pains also vanish like a wraith,
Like all the joys the time-line has to lend.
I give thanks that I can still walk and talk and dream,
And read and write many treasures of time that leave tracks.
I give thanks for every light-beam
That illuminates this solid-seeming world of melting wax.
I try to focus on what my life has, rather than on what my life lacks.
Dancing, for me, may pretty much be a past happy thing;
But I'm very, very thankful that I still can joyfully sing!
Thankful for happiness and meaning that singing can still bring.
I give thanks for love,
All love, of every kind,
Like friends and family,
But mostly for romantic love that made me feel as if forever alive.
I give thanks for full-grown love, and love stilled in the seed.
And for the varying durations and kinds and different degrees
Of happiness and rich meaning,
And for the different gifts and values and work of every love.
I came to many with my want, and they left me with my need.
But they also left me with memories that are still so golden glad.
I give thanks for all the love and loves that I have had.
I give thanks for all the works that I have wrought,
Including the many that I had to leave unmarked and unsigned,
All still the children of my heart and thought.
I give thanks for beauty that I still can see and hear and feel,
In the magic of reality, for as long as I am real.
I give thanks for my lifetime's memories.
I give thanks for my magical mind and heart,
And for all of my wonderful senses.
I give thanks for all my past blessings and those that remain.
I give thanks to God for the world and life, and pray to have again.
I give thanks for my several-months-long respite from pain.
I give thanks for, and to, my good doctors and my medical team,
Especially my knowledgeable, friendly, generous, caring oncologist,
For all the happy living moments
Of mind, heart, and body, I could have missed.
I give thanks for still having hope to hold against the fear.
I give thanks for having lived another year.
I give thanks for every moment that I survive.
For friends, I give thanks.  For love, I give thanks. 
For my life, I give thanks.
I am glad and grateful that, right now, I am here.
I rejoice in great gratefulness that I am still alive.
Every day for me is thanksgiving.  And I give thanks.

============================
Written by Michael LP
On Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22, 2012 3:52 PM
71 degrees    Humidity: 21%    Forecast: fair
Copyright (C) 2012 by Michael LP.  All rights reserved
(Copyrighted for my estate)