Praise, praise, praise that sap-sticky life

Praise, praise, praise that sap-sticky life

Look at your life, green thicket around you.

Look at it, strewn across the floor,

listen, crunching underfoot,

noisy with birdsong,

feel it, sap-covered and

sticky as a life should be.

..

Going out and back will show you this:

there is no way to walk the same path twice,

not if you are watchful, if your

eyes, your ears, your heart are wide with

love or something like it.

..

So fill your senses with pleasure, with

surprise, with thanks.

Tire them out. Go ahead!

There is only so much can be adored today,

so drink what you can of that cool water.

Let your belly be full.

..

Praise the daylily now, for tomorrow it dies.

Praise the heron today as she flies overhead.

Praise the deer as she dips in the pond.

You may never see that again, and

oh, is it marvelous.

Praise, praise, praise that

sap-sticky life of yours,

changing and messy and too-short,

too short to see it all, too short to not bless it

with every wow you have to give.