#gratitude

Are you thinking jesus! When's this woman going to express her gratitude for the deep blue sea and the great blue whales? Here it is, my gratitude for the deep blue sea, for the coast of California and the planet's largest mammals that swim in the waters.

I saw five blue whales a week or so ago, not one or two or even three but five. Their bodies are sleek and shone in the sun. Vast.

Here it is. My gratitude for dolphins, for the thousands of them raced us, my efforts to not anthropomorphize so difficult because surely they smile and play and love?

Here it is. My gratitude for the island fox

for a dusty hot day

for a rocky beach where I lay with a book on a blanket, a stone under my head and in the small of my back

for a painted cave that smelled of damp and green. Lichen, the word

For white flowers that grew out of rock

for red crabs busy in clear water

for pelicans overhead

for this man for us