A Gardener\u2019s Thanksgiving
\nLet us give thanks for a bounty of people:
\nFor 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;
\nFor generous friends with hearts and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
\nFor feisty friends as tart as apples;
\nFor continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we\u2019ve had them;\u00a0
\nFor crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
\nFor 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;
\nFor 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;
\nFor 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;<\/p>\n
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;<\/p>\n
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;<\/p>\n
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;<\/p>\n
For all these we give thanks.<\/p>\n
~ Reverend Max Coots 1928-2009<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n