Sensate

I give you thanks today, Lord God, Adonai; 

I give you thanks for the day, 

for the gift of waking, 

the grace of breathing, 

for the bounty of breaths I will draw 

and thoughts I will think, 

words I will exchange, 

and work I will do. 

Thank you for every moment of safety I will enjoy, 

for every bite of nourishment, 

every taste of pleasure. 

Thank you for every moment of sight, 

for the grace of seeing, 

the privilege of gazing on my wife, my children, my grandchildren, my friends, 

and the thousands of objects and images my eyes will see today. 

 Thank you for the sounds I will hear, 

the grace of hearing, 

the blessing of lover's voice and music and speech and even the cacophony of traffic and machinery. 

Thank you, Father, for all your kindnesses to me, 

which daily go unmarked, unthanked, unappreciated. 

Make me more mindful of the thousands of graces you bestow on me today, 

and make me glad to be alive, and sensate, and able to enjoy so much. 

Grant me to enjoy even the least enjoyable, 

remembering that the sense to taste bitter as well as sweet is a grace as well, 

in Jesus' name, amen.

(photo by DreamPixer via pixabay.com)