I am part of you, O Truth Unfolding.
I am part of you.
I am part of a cosmos.
I cannot see
either its edge or its end.
How amazing!
I am part of a galaxy of a million, billion stars.
They say it’s a pinwheel.
How wonderful!
I am part of a system of planets that swing
around a small parent star. How strong the hands
of invis­ible gravity must be
to hold it all together, just so!
I am part of a planet, green and blue,
along with mountains and seas,
sponges and spores,
lichen and lava,
robins and rain,
periwinkles and perch,
centipedes and cities.
How great the variety!
How astonishing the mutual dependence of it all!
I am part of a species
that belongs to a grouping of animals
called mammalia
and so is every other human being, equally so.
I am part of a political unit called a nation.
There are many nations,
each of them dear in many ways
to its local citizens.
I am part of a ­family with ethnicity, practice,
and love in the form of food,
rooted in the mountains of Emilia.
Others know other roots, other practices.
I am part of a ­circle of friends rooted,
not in ethnicity or food,
but in ­simple redemptive love.
I am part of a climate region,
part of a state,
part of a city,
part of a neighborhood,
part of a congregation,
and part of a staff.
And with you I am part and parcel of this moment,
this ­simple silence which lasts but a few breaths,
and then is gone forever.
But like cosmos, galaxy, planet, species, nation, climate, city, neighborhood, ­family, and
­circles of friendship, it
is precious,
a present for which I give thanks.