"Let us give thanks for a bounty of people..."

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:
For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind
too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember
where their roots are;
For generous friends with hearts and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we've
had them;
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn,
and the other, plain as potatoes and as good for you;
For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels Sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem
Artichokes, and serious friends, as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as
parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be
counted on to see you through the winter;
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming
on as fast as radishes;
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights,
wilts and witherings;
And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and
who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;
For all these we give thanks.

~ Reverend Max Coots 1928-2009 
Reverend Max Coots passed away in 2009 after a long and full life. He served as the Minister Emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Canton, New York

Giving thanks for all of you in my life! -- Brent