Thanks for life and being

I'm usually so preoccupied with my outer life
and the distractions and demands 
that it places on me
that I almost forget that I am actually alive now, 
participating directly in this great force of life, 
which arises everywhere 
in trillions of galaxies throughout the entire cosmos. 

I can't even pretend to understand that. 

Yet, in this moment 
here and now, 
as I sit quietly and sense my inward being, 
I can understand 
that I am a living creature here within a cosmos, an order
that I too often forget  
in pursuit of the things that mankind invents for itself. 

I want to leave all of that alone now 
and to begin again here 
as though I had just been born
and knew nothing of this world that I find myself in. 

I return to this remembering of life within being. 

I am here. 

And my value begins here
like a spring of cold, fresh water that I drink, 
sensing with every atom and molecule and cell in my body 
that I am alive in this life itself 
before anything happens outside of me. 

Through a sensation of my being, 
I begin to tangibly experience the goodness, 
the value of this life as it flows into me. 

And as I become attuned to the breathing, 
I begin to understand that goodness flows into being here and now. 

No matter what happens today
I am offered the opportunity in each moment 
to search for this connection to goodness within being. 

To relax and open myself so that it enters here into life more freely. 

I become a vessel that receives this goodness, 
allowing it to penetrate every cell in my body and deposit itself there, 
so that I am a resource or a reservoir for goodness itself. 

from this place where I am now, 
having ingested a bit of this cosmological goodness, 

if I come back to myself later today 
and remember that I am here in this life, 

if I remember myself 
in both the moments of joy 
and the moments of doubt and pain,
this goodness that has been deposited in me 
can be offered forward into life, 
offered in the right measure to support relationship 
to support being and goodness themselves. 

And from here, 
as I realize this, 
a sense of gratitude begins to arise,

and I give thanks
for this life and this being.