One day at at time

A tree outside my window shades my home from the sun. Bark, leaves, roots and sap, home to birds and squirrels, bugs and food for the same, it's leaves fall and nourish the soil then bloom again to shade my home in the summer creating a cool haven for me.

I see the wood of the tree in the boards of my home. They do not look like the tree and they are not alive to my eyes but I see the body of the tree in them, the years that it lived and grew and was nourished by the sun and the rain and the soil. I see the men who cut the tree and shaped the wood and built a barn. I see the care that they took to plane the boards and smooth the edges.

I see the barn, new and strong, sheltering animals and grain and tools from the rain and the sun that used to nourish the tree. I feel the years of the barn as it falls into disrepair and neglect. The men who built it passed on and then another man or woman - seeing the beauty and strength still in the boards - taking apart the barn, so lovingly built, and cutting the boards to grace the walls of their home. Some of the less perfect boards were made into shelving and placed against the ones on the walls because I enjoy the way they look together. It is all of love and from the creator.

In a vase of clay with glazes of minerals I see the hands that cleaned and shaped the clay, ground and applied the glaze, fired the results and put it out into the world where I found it and loved it for years, not knowing that the love in that vase would speak to me of the Creator's love for me.

The curtains on my window are of fibers grown in the sun and the rain, collected, processed and woven by other hands, dyed with the colors of nature, sewed to earn a living for a family by hands I have never seen They are from my creator to me with love.

The glass on top of my table from the sand created by unknown years of rocks and the oceans was heated and shaped by humans I never knew. It speaks to me of his love for me. The mirror with the silver back reflects my mother’s love as it was a gift to me and shows me the beauty of creation and the love in each thing around me.

The brass in the candlesticks that came out of the earth and was refined and shaped by humans to be bells on one end and light my way on the other. A joyful noise and a light unto my feet from him to me, thank you.

There is nothing in my life that was not first created and given to all of us by the love the Creator has for us. In our love of creating we continue to express his love for ourselves and each other.
One loves to work with wood, another with clay, another with weaving, but they do what they love and put their love into each piece. Even in a sweat shop the person sewing is doing the work for love of themselves or their families.

It was all put here for us to use. It all carries the love of the creator for us. The geodes, "ugly" rocks on the outside but filled with crystal beauty, remind me we are not as we appear to be. - we are so much more than what we appear to be here.

The beans in the coffee, grown and ripened in the sun and the rain he sends, picked by other hands, packaged, cleaned, ground and sent to me to enjoy from half a world away are a gift of his love. The food consume so carelessly was nourished and grown for our bodies benefit, sometimes hundreds of miles away, cared for and picked, packaged and transported by others we never see.

The animals we consume are loving spirits now, the plants we eat are loving spirits now. The tree that holds the plate of clay and the glass of sand and the tools of metal are all from him and provided by his loving creation of all that we need.

Creator, for the sacrifice, labor, and love shown to me in this meal to strengthen and maintain my body I am truly thankful. For the place you have given me to consume it in I thank you. For those I am sharing it with and their love I thank you.

Bless those that provided it and the hands that prepared it and may I use it’s nourishment to show your glory to all who I meet today. Guide me to do each task lovingly. Amen.