Let me be grateful, even when it is painful

The smell of crispy apples baking in the oven

The sound of a boy practising his violin scales

The sight of Canadian geese in a v in the heavens

The touch of a newborn’s fingers and nails

Let me be grateful, even when it is painful

Do not let me take you, nor life, for granted

But may such heartbeat be to your praise

When running alongside the Oxford Canal

When cycling through busy Broad Street

Reading 14thc. weather reports in the Annales

Finding a library that combines beauty and heat

Let me be grateful, even when it is painful

Do not let me take you, nor life, for granted

But may such heartbeat be to your praise

Uprootedness and its constant game of change

A season of retreat so to recover oneself

The vivid past and blurry present so to rearrange

embracing the here and now despite itself

Let me be grateful, even when it is painful

Do not let me take you, nor life, for granted

But may such heartbeat be to your praise