Gratitude Prayers, a beautiful non-sappy collection by June Cotner

GRATITUDE PRAYERS: Prayers, Poems, and Prose for Everyday Thankfulness

Collected by June Cotner, author of the best-selling GRACES,
whose books have sold nearly one million copies

Published by Andrews McMeel Publishing

$12.99 hardcover

ISBN-13:  978-1-4494-2176-2

The book is NOW available at a 40% discount ($7.78) on Amazon.com!

Gratitude Prayers is an uplifting collection of inspiring prayers, reflective poems, and motivating quotes that will open you to experience more joy and wonder in life. More than 100 selections will remind you to embrace each and every day with abundance and thankfulness. Gratitude Prayers includes the voices of classic visionaries such as Rumi, Anne Frank, Walt Whitman and Helen Keller, whose words mingle eloquently alongside contemporary writers such as Michael S. Glaser and Barbara Crooker. The writers in this exuberant book share how to seek out tiny moments of joy, which will point the way toward finding the good in every situation.

The selections in this book will encourage you to pay attention to things that make you laugh, the places that nourish you, the loved ones who inspire and guide you, and caring strangers who bring blessings to your days.

GRATITUDE PRAYERS is available at independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble stores, and online at Amazon.com and bn.com.

EXCERPTS:

HAPPINESS

She loves West Tenth Street on an
ordinary summer morning.
Michael Cunningham, THE HOURS

And I love this ordinary summer afternoon,
sitting under my cherry tree full of overripe fruit,
too much for us to pick, an abbondanza of a tree,
I love this dark grey catbird singing its awkward
song, and the charcoal clouds promising rain
they don’t deliver. I love the poem I’ve been trying
to write for months, but can’t; I love the way
it’s going nowhere at all. I love the dried grass
that crackles when you walk on it,
leached of color, its own kind of fire.
Way off in the hedgerow, the musical olio
of dozens of birds, each singing its own song,
each beating its own measure. This is all there is:
the red cherries, the green leaves, sky like a pale
silk dress, and the rise and fall of the sweet
breeze. Sometimes, just what you have
manages to be enough.

Barbara Crooker

MORNING

There is so much life still undone
so much still in bloom. ~ Denise Levertov

Each morning I wake
with excitement

overwhelmed by the leaves
turning outside the window,

the scent of fall,
the slant of morning light,

the books on my nightstand
filled with promise

the books on the coffee table
in the living room where you sit

already awake
in the unfolding of day

reading or writing, coffee in hand,
looking up and smiling, as you do.

Michael S. Glaser
 

INSTRUCTIONS

Leave your cell phone, your watch
and your thoughts
on the kitchen table.

Walk slowly. Leave the trail
to follow a scent
or to follow a bird’s refrain.

Listen for the stirrings
in the underbrush.

Notice what grows at your feet,
the puzzle-pieces of the sky
and what the light reveals.

Cast out your gaze like a net
and take everything in

every intricate detail,
each small astonishment.

Deborah Gordon Cooper

CELEBRATION

I want to celebrate you.
I am truly blessed to be a part of your world.
I learn from you, I admire you, I love you.
You are my own personal star that follows me
around and shines down on me.
You light my life with magic and wonder.
Such a gift of love.
You are a part of my soul.
You own a piece of my heart.
Your loving spirit provides a constant parade
of emotions that warm my heart.
I feel complete knowing you are near.
I feel empty without you.
I want to celebrate you,
yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Lori Eberhardy
 

THE ROAD

Here is the road: the light
comes and goes then returns again.
Be gentle with your fellow travelers
as they move through the world of stone and stars
whirling with you yet every one alone.
The road waits.
Do not ask questions but when it invites you
to dance at daybreak, say yes.
Each step is the journey; a single note the song.

Arlene Gay Levine

THIS IS IT #2

This is It.
This is really It.
This is all there is.
And It’s perfect as It is.

There is nowhere to go
but Here.
There is nothing here
but Now.
There is nothing now
but This.

And this is It.
This is really It.
This is all there is.
And It’s perfect as It is.

James Broughton
(1913 – 1999)