I Have So Much to Be Happy About

With Thanksgiving just past, I want to share a thoughtful poem with you. This poem was written by Alice Marsh Yelken, the wife of Rev. Gene Yelken, who is now retired from serving numerous churches around the Rocky Mountain Conference. Alice has now joined the eternal Communion of Saints. She has been gone several years now, but she would have enjoyed blogging. At the end of her life, she developed a significant email outreach, and I always looked forward to reading her messages. The depth of her reflections and insights always brought encouragement to me. She was a mature spirit who knew the meaning of love and joy.

This poem is entitled “I Have So Much to Be Happy About,” and it is provides a great sense of perspective. Alice wrote the poem for Thanksgiving 2002, but I think it provides an appropriate message for Advent as well. We just celebrated the Sunday devoted to peace, and Alice has helped me understand that gratitude is the foundation of peace, the foundation of justice. I hope you find her poem to be as meaningful as I do. May God bless you with much to be happy about during this festive season – and may our gratitude provide rich seeds for the growth of peace and justice in our time!

-- Thomas


I Have So Much to Be Happy About

“I have so much to happy about today”
She said as she danced off to school
Ah, but the world is her oyster, you say--
She has it all, why, she’s nobody’s fool.

Yes, she is one of the privileged few
Contented, safe, warm and well fed
Two loving parents and a big brother, too--
Nothing at all for her to dread.

Eight years old, a bright future ahead
The best in all things and opportunities galore--
Why should she have any other thought in her head?
Why, she has the world by the tail and more!

Yes, she is one of the privileged few
And, among that few, one of the fewer still
Who knows without a doubt that it’s true
With gratitude deep in her heart instilled.

Methinks this a message we all need to hear
At Thanksgiving time, two thousand and two
That we should have naught in our hearts but good cheer--
In God’s world, we’re among the privileged few.

World peace, justice and plenty for all
Begin with just one with a grateful heart--
One willing to share, as we answer God’s call
For a world where greed and lust have no part.

Overwhelmed we may be by war and by want
And thinking there’s little one person can do,
While for more things we greedily pant

A grateful heart is one willing to share
No matter their lot or circumstance--
An unselfish heart which loves and cares
While justice for all is not left to chance.

On Thanksgiving day, let’s begin a lifetime of days
Imbued with the gift of a grateful heart
And to God above, let us always give praise
That we have so much to be happy about!

--by Alice Marsh Yelken, Thanksgiving Day, 2002, poem #219