w.s. merwin writes:

listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is


the feeling of this poem has stayed with me since i first read it last week -- it's creeped it's way into my heart and won't leave. the idea that there's so much crap in the world, everywhere, it's all you see, but something is pulling us out of the middle of it, making us forget it and look up and be amazed, without even knowing how or why, despite ourselves, all we can do is be amazed.
i know what that something is in clear-cut words and ideas, but by saying those words sometimes the mystery is lost, the amazing mystical power that is our god, who pulls and draws our hearts beyond our understanding, lifting us up out of this crap. Despite our best intentions to despair, he causes us to be thankful.

i especially love the line 'unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you'...

there's a thought from a book i don't remember the name of that goes along with this idea. something along the lines of, 'god has not promised to protect our circumstances. he has promised to preserve the life of his spirit in us.' that's probably so far off the actual quote that i'll soon be getting sued, but that's been a key thought in my growth process this last year. god is the same god regardless of our circumstances or life experiences, and he preserves his life in us through them all.
'unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you.'