Thermometers and Laughter and Showing Up

The days I wake up

and fall asleep

and move through the world

tired and clumsy,

it is hard to know the truths

of what I am grateful for.

Those days,

I am grateful not for winter,

but for a shorter strip of red on the thermometer

and the way I can see my breath

if I look enough.

Those days,

I am grateful not for family,

but for the dinner table laughter

loud and quiet

when you can float on it

reach out and touch it.

Those days,

I am grateful not for school,

but for the teacher that showed up,

or if not that,

for the fact that they smiled at me.

When I am too tired to be grateful

for big things

I will be grateful for thermometers and laughter and showing up.