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COUNTING BLESSINGS
"Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done."
I started counting blessings as the old hymn told me to
In this time of widespread problems, would that be hard to do?
The economy’s decline and fall is the first I’ll mention.
Wall Street’s wobbles tore a hole in our expected pension.
But that is Blessing Number One. Now choices are less trying.
‘No-s’ are easy; ‘Yes-es’ few. Less income means less buying!
We’re semi-homeless wanderers; no spot to call our own.
We’re here today – your neighbor – but tomorrow maybe gone.
That is Blessing Number Two. Though not in one fixed place,
We find that every spot we stay is home, and filled with grace.
We own no real estate at all, no land, no house, no shacks!
‘Tis Blessing Number Four, because we pay no property tax!
We are retired from daily work, no longer earn our keep.
No clock to punch; no boss to please; few phones to ring or beep.
Alarm clocks now are obsolete. We sleep whene’re we’re tired.
So Blessing Number Ten is: we can’t be laid off or fired!
Then, of course, there is my health. My body’s slowing down.
Each day brings new aches and pains. It even hurts to frown!
Morning when the sun gets up, I pause: can I do the same?
So Blessing Twenty-Five? So far I’m still in Life’s game!
My memory’s not what once it was, but that I have forgot.
Long ago is here and now, but yesterday is not!
It’s not so bad when I think it’s June in mid-November.
Blessing Thirty-Nine is all the gossip I can’t remember!
We live in a 32-foot RV. That’s really not much space.
We really had to down-size and gave lots of stuff away.
So Blessing Number Fifty-Four will benefit our son,
For settling up our earthly estate is already done!
From childhood friends and colleagues, we’re many miles away.
Blessing Seventy-Five is new friends we make wherever we stay.
We’re always going somewhere. We don’t put down deep roots.
We are not permanent settlers. We raise but tiny shoots.
Blessing One Hundred is: we’re preparing for what’s to come,
For human life’s but a journey and this world’s not our home.
ONE HUNDRED BLESSINGS, JUST A FEW
OF WHAT GOD GIVES EACH DAY.
OUR LIFE’S TOO SMALL TO HOLD THEM ALL,
SO WE’LL JUST GIVE THEM AWAY!
13 Sept 2009 - mshr
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