Anyway

by Anne Thomson

PHOTO: Yvonne hanson

Anyway

Celebrate the little things, they tell me.
Like breathing in and breathing out.
Like the press of heart to chest
And the smell of my child’s shoulder.
Like the hug of leather around my feet
And the scratch of the handmade scarf tucked into my collar.
All these things, these small things,
Celebrate!

Celebrate the old things, they tell me.
Like the comfort of the heat rising off the chipped porcelain mug in my hand.
Like the friendship that colours all my grown years
And the traditions and rituals that fill my every day.
Like the memories that tether me to the here and now.
All these things, these old things,
Celebrate!

Celebrate the new things, they tell me.
Like the paints and wool and words that have appeared in the void of absent busy-ness.
Like the flash of crystals wound around my wrist and around my heart
And the allure of scented oils warmed by my skin.
Like the song I just heard, just found, which just found me
All these things, these new things,
Celebrate!

This is what they tell me
But
What if there are no small things?
No old things?
No new things?
What if there is only, in the end,
The surprise of love
That knocks the breath out of my grateful, raw heart
Again and again?
To celebrate would be to diminish,
To celebrate would be too little.

Celebrate.
Celebrate anyway.
Celebrate!

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Anne Thomson has lived and played in beautiful Squamish since 1991.  A performing arts teacher for over 25 years, Anne has been blessed to make music here in the Sea to Sky corridor with humans of all ages and from many walks of life. If Anne is not involved in something creative, she can be found curled up with a book, sipping from an endless pot of tea.