From the Author’s Preface

Perhaps if my table prayers transitioned from prose to poetry, this would result in more lively, provocative ways of saying “thank you” to the Mystery that surrounds our days.

More than six thousand languages are spoken on Earth.  All of them have ways of expressing gratitude.  Each meditation/prayer in section one of this book is given a title using a term for “gratitude” or “thank you” in a different tongue.  It seems that our species has an urgent and universal need to say “thank you” to that Mystery from whom we come, in whom we live and to whom we go.

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yeraghtagitutyun Holy One with the breath of your wind we are quickened with the abundance of earth we are nourished with the Prophets we dream a just world at peace How can we not be grateful? Amen	kiitollisuus Mystery beyond the farthest reaches of our minds, yet nearer than the air we breathe – when we are not astounded by the abundance of your gifts, wake us up, we pray, to a renewed sense of awe and lives given to praise and thanksgiving. Amen
gratitudni Something there is in the human spirit – a hunch, a wish, a gleam of intuition that whispers there is more here than meets the eye, more than the mind can comprehend or words name, a darkness and light, a presence and absence hidden – but shown to some inner knowing that knows better than we know, that knows we are meant to cry out our lament and praise, our anger and thanksgiving to the Nameless One with many names. So we do. Amen	感 Our lives are full of ambiguity We rejoice around this table of food and companionship which sustains us We are heavy with sadness for the homeless and hungry in our city and in distant places Nourish and enliven us to be your people and to do your will We give you thanks for both the joy and pain by which we know we are alive to you and to our world Amen
תודה הכרת Here on this spinning blue planet, no other like it in the Universe as far as we can see, how easy to take for granted all the common things with which we are surrounded - air to breathe, sun for warmth, gravity to ground us, fertile soil, water, food, love and hope to nurture human life. Blessings common on Earth, extraordinary in our Universe. How can we not come to this meal in a spirit of awe, amazement and gratitude?	dankie Who are we to be so bold wise, presumptuous as to walk through the vast mystery of this day and to receive the countless blessings of life even this food and drink now set before us on our table - Who are we if our hearts do not blend irresistibly to gratitude