Thank You

Under overcast skies the lands are lush with green and my thoughts are scattered with abundance. Maize is cropping up everywhere, some tall as an infant, and tobacco is brooding in distant fields. Grass has grown wild and the flowers bloom their petals from the brush. It is January and the rains have been disappointing. The village is worried but is hopeful the conditions will improve as these are the peak months for rainfall. One can imagine the devastation of a dry year.

I don’t say this enough to the people around me. Be it close friends or family, often taking them for granted. Unfortunately, I have a habit of being thankful instead for the attentions of pursuits. As if I had earned it, as if it was some great accomplishment. The point is its too late. A lifetime of benefiting from the generosities of those closest to me, how can I possibly show my gratitude? It is more immense than words, especially to my mother, father, and sister. Some day I hope to return to you all you have done for me, but for today all I can offer you is my thanks.

You may not be proud of everything I do or say. You may be disappointed, frustrated, angry, saddened and even heartbroken. For these things I am truly sorry, but I’m navigating my own course through this world, making sense of it the best I can. This world: so different from home, placed high atop a silver steeple. We climbed on your shoulders up only to find another steeple above. While you will always have that old world, home, we have only this world. Peering over the edge is an abyss and someday we will be stranded here, your shoulders no longer there to permit us home.

So thank you. Thank you for bringing us out, leaving home, to give us the opportunities you never had. Thank you for allowing us the freedom to choose any life we wanted. Thank you for sponsoring us to pursue that life so that we have no obligations and are free. Thank you for all the little things, from scrapes to pickups. Thank you for being there for the happiest moments and sad ones. Thank you for coming to Malawi, not many families do, and I am privileged that you did. Thank for all these wonderful gifts you brought of food and gadgets that are entirely too much for one person.