We give thanks for this day and for these people and all the people who have enriched our lives.

We give thanks for the gift of life with all of its pain and its joy, its struggles and its triumphs.

We give thanks for love, which created us, which revivifies us and links us to others in struggle and in joy. We give thanks for eyes to see and ears to hear, the ability to feel and the imagination to see beyond the obvious.

We give thanks for the spirit of creativity that inspires and encourages, that brings novelty in the midst of familiarity and risk in the midst of comfort, that surprises in the midst of the commonplace.

We give thanks by giving to others in return for all that we have received.

We give thanks in the depths of our souls as we enter this time of silent contemplation.

(Silence)