Tai Shan

by Bob Charlick

Taishan rises like human desire.

What could men want in scaling those endless steps?

Rain falls on its green pines.

Plastic robed like fresh wrapped monks,

the pilgrim/tourists test their mettle

against this ageless stele

Wisdom abounds with each step up,

the rocks bear witness to our need to know

and leave our mark.

Taishan's call is bigger still.

We climb to defy entropy.

Health, riches and peace all counter

nature's slow erosion.

Don't ask the mountain, then, for peace

it stand aloof

offering nothing but the foil and stage

upon which we can play our piece of visions and dreams.

Over the past year, I am grateful for, or feel a profound sense of gratitude for:

Knowing that with God all things are possible. Let me explain what I mean. I am a student who is passionate about becoming a nurse. This year the Universe aligned with my desires so that I can focus on my studies, have my living expenses met, without any concerns. I am abundantly blessed. For this, I am eternally grateful.

Anonymous

I am grateful for:

That we all get where we are going."

For reflections on the waters.

For shady trees on a summer day.

For shadows that assert that we are.

For a clear day.

For a cloudy day.

For every breath I take today!

FAZ

Over the past year, I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to educating the many young people that have come through my life at the colleges I teach at. The experiences that I have shared with them may contribute to their leading a more successful life. I also have benefited from our interaction. Their energy and creativity has inspired me. As a result of our interaction, I am inspired by the bright future they represent. I also am grateful that my teaching experience has helped me see how we are all one. We are both teachers and students in each other's lives. We are all perfect children of God manifesting that perfection in the world and making this world a better place to live in.

Bob Churilla

I am grateful for or I feel a profound sense of gratitude for:

A loving daughter Debbie and son Bill. For a lovely home and wonderful neighbors. For the life I have since losing my husband  five years ago. How amazed I am at what I have accomplished on my own since then. For finding this loving spiritual community and becoming a part of it. For these blessings I am so very grateful.

June Walker

Over this past year I feel a profound gratitude for the opportunity to serve, and serve with, all the people that make up the RSC community.  2009 has been a time of coming together, of affirming who we truly are, of discovering aspects of ourselves personally and communally previously unknown.  It has been a time of new friendships, deepened friendships, new synergies, renewed energies.  It will always be this—for it is who we are and what we’re about—embracing life, and one another.    

Rev. Dana Cummings

Over the past year, I am grateful for, or feel a profound sense of gratitude for:

-All the healing energies from the natural world and from the hearts, minds, knowledge and skills of my human family.

-All the plants of the earth for their nourishment and beauty.

Judy Charlick