The Grace of Gratitude

In the middle of the night
One of those dark anguishing nights
Where the soul longs to leave the body
And the grueling nature of the trial by fire
Pushes me beyond the edges of this precarious thing called life,
Plummeting to the depths
And contemplating more than I could withstand,
I had to make a choice: 
Was I in or was I out? 
With despair eating a hole through my life every day
I chose life
And while the storm continued,
the wary wrath of the storm began to abate
Becoming softer
I started to relax as the miracle of gratitude began to work
Tasting the sweetness
Making peace
Recognizing the gifts
In the bleakness of the desert.  I am grateful for my beloved children who love me unconditionally,  my mom who is battling cancer and fighting for her life each and every day, not being depressed as often, the heaviness lifting some days more than others, the authentic personalities of students who use satire as a way of coping with the paradigm shifts and misaligned emphasis on standardized tesring, and finally and I am thankful for celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation with my youngest, even though two of the four priests were sick and we had to wait a long time.