It’s a few days after Thanksgiving, and I’m still thankful for my blessings, which include three grown children, two with spouses, one with children, who are sometimes not able to be home for holidays. I wrote the following words last year at Thanksgiving, and I’m dedicating this post to the beautiful people in my life who have to be far away:

I am grateful 
For Pike’s Peak
And for Katherine Lee Bates, 
Who wrote “America The Beautiful”
And whose statue sits
There in 
Colorado Springs, 
Gazing westward
At her mountain
Majesty, 

26 hours away by car 
From where I live
On a farm in PA.

And I am grateful for my 
Military children, 
Helicopter pilot,
Military wife—
My precious, far-away 
Daughter, 
With her tiny beautiful girls, 
Who 
Have had to say
So many good-byes
In their short lives, 

Who are the reason
I venture across the miles
Westward,
and gaze with
Katherine
At the wonder
Of Pike’s Peak.

Thank you for reading this.