Gratitude

Bright blue skies and dazzling sun    
Greet the late December morn;  
White Christmas and 'winter wonderland'    
are not to be this year    
    
As I sit alone in my empty house    
And reflect on Yuletides past,    
I should be overcome with sadness    
For loved ones and good times long gone    

There is a certain heaviness
As I breathe in and breathe out,
As my mind roams through the years,
Walking roads not traveled since a child
   
Yet as the memories file by    
In a silent holiday parade,    
A sense of peace pervades my being,    
Transforming to an inner strength, to gratitude    
   
Those loved ones made possible    
So many moments of happiness;    
Still, to wish them back is also to wish    
They should once again endure suffering and death    
   
To those who have completed their journeys, I simply say,  
"Thank you, you are loved, you are not forgotten;    
Perhaps you've not made me all that I am,    
But you've shown me so much that I could be."