Gratitude Is Like a Giddy Toddler

(From Within My Illusions)

Have you ever seen something so beautiful
that you almost couldn’t stand it?

Like it was a heroic effort
to contain yourself,
to refrain from jumping
up and down and shouting
like a giddy toddler
who just tasted ice cream
for the first time, and wants
to proclaim to everyone within earshot
how magnificent it was?

The tips of the clouds at the edge
of the horizon glowed hot pink
as their condensed matter caught the light
of the setting sun below.
Billowing waves rolled toward me,
their gentle undulations punctuated
by jagged peaks and land lakes
that formed in spaces
where the ground was visible
twenty thousand feet below.

The young man in the row ahead of me
angled his phone at the window
to take a picture, and I felt relieved
that I was not the only one
who noticed.