my today is

A long drive to my sister's house for a family Christmas party.
Cousins.
Good food.
Ecstatic children.
A long drive home through the canyon.
All five children (15 months-16 years) falling asleep on the drive home.
A rare hour of silence.
Snow on red rock.
Frozen river.
Juniper.
Pinion pine.
Spruce.
Scrub oak.
Sage brush.
Tumble weed.
Sheep.
Crows.
Horses.
Llamas.
Bliss.

my intention

School Prayer

In the name of the daybreak

and the eyelids of morning

and the wayfaring moon

and the night when it departs,

I swear I will not dishonor

my soul with hatred,

but offer myself humbly

as a guardian of nature,

as a healer of misery,

as a messenger of wonder,

as an architect of peace.

In the name of the sun and its mirrors

and the day that embraces it

and the cloud veils drawn over it

and the uttermost night

and the male and the female

and the plants bursting with seed

and the crowning seasons

of the firefly and the apple,

I will honor all life

—wherever and in whatever form

it may dwell—on Earth my home,

and in the mansions of the stars.

~ Diane Ackerman