Gratitude

FarmWife is doing this "gratitude" thing over at Puddle Run, saying thanks for some of the good things in her life (in lieu of resolving to do something unpleasant, like jog). I figured I'd better keep up with the Joneses, so I'm going to blog about my gratitude, too! On this new day of a bright new year, I'm grateful for my wonderful friends. You're so smart, considerate, kind, loving, and nonjudgemental. I really appreciated the great advice and kind encouragement that you all gave me after my glum post the other day, and I'm going to take it to heart and work on spending special time with FarmWife every day. You guys are the best.

I'm also grateful for those of you who do good work to save mules and donkeys who have no home, no loving humans with whom to cultivate strong relationships. New Hampshire-based Save Your Ass Longear Rescue (www.saveyourassrescue.org) is one group for whom I have immense respect, so much so that I wrote them this New Years poem last night:

A chilly night, a snowy field, 
A barnyard silver-lit.
There, gathered, stand some longeared friends,
Some weary and some fit. 
A sentiment passed through the ranks
Needs not be said in words:
It's gratitude, a sense of peace,
Of hope yet undeterred. 
"We're here, we're safe," they seem to say.
"No hunger and no pain.
We've found ourselves a resting place
Where fear shan't strike again.
We've been brought in by shelt'ring arms
to share a humble wealth—
There's hay, dry space, and helpful friends
Restoring us to health.
Good night, old year. Ho, dawn anew! 
In peace, we welcome thee. 
Our asses saved, we mules and donks
Can greet you merrily. 
If here we stay or out we go
to forge a future bright,
One thing is sure: 
With Save Your Ass, 
our lives have come out right."