For The Life I Have Had/And For The People I Care For (A Poem Of Gratitude To Godonmy Seventy-Eighth Birthday Poem by Shalom Freedman

I am not too old and too sick on this seventy-eighth birthday
To not still be grateful to God
For the life I have and have had
And for the people I care for
And for the blessing of having been born
And raised in the United States of America
And for having lived most of my adult life in Israel
And for the time to write the years away
And for the ability to help a few people
And for the friends and the teachers
And so many and so much else
Just including being alive
And seeing and hearing the music of things
And at times
It is after all a beautiful world
And for having been born Jewish
A special blessing
So much
I thank You God
Forgive me for my questions and doubts
But that is not for today
Today I love life and I thank You for mine
And for those of the people I have loved and love
And for again just being alive.