Thanksgiving Grats and Thoughts

 Good morning,

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate in the US today. I’m having a luxurious slow morning in my bed, still in PJs, watching the Macy’s parade with my coffee, and sharing gratitude lists with my friends. It’s something I’ve got in the habit of doing almost everyday in this last year of recovery. I call them Grats. I write a short list of little things, people, places or events that my heart is grateful for that day. It helps reroute my negative, self-seeking brain onto a track of thankfulness and respect for my abundant life.

So today, I thought it was apropos to share a more extensive list with my community. I think in this culture of social media humble brags and perfectly posed Instagram photos, it almost feels cringe to share gratitude publicly. Isn’t it just a more gratuitous, self-indulgent extension of what we are already doing every day?

But I’m not going to give in to that thought this morning. Today I’m going to admit that gratitude is actually a deeply spiritual practice. One that refocuses my sick mind daily and reconnects me with the miracle that is life itself. Gratitude teaches me not to take one little thing for granted, and to thank the spirit in all things for joining with mine. It is a ritual of reciprocity.

I recently took a day trip with my family to the Plimoth Pautuxet Museums. My mother’s side has distant relatives on the Mayflower, and my kids are very interested in the history of the pilgrims and indigenous communities of Massachusetts.

The kids in front of a Wampanoag wetu, their traditional dwelling. These homes could be as large as a football field and kept fires going 24/7.

The wetus would have several fires that burned 24/7, never left untended. The Wampanoag considered the fire to be a living thing with a spirit. The fire would be carried with the tribe wherever they moved.

Gigi soaking up the wisdom of this, enchanting Wampanoag Storyteller.

On our walk through the woods to the Wampanoag Homesite, a recreation of a local indigenous village, I saw a plaque with this prayer from a Wampanoag elder:

Giving Thanks

For the Children of the Earth
Let every Day
be one of giving Thanks

Let every Being of Creation
along our paths
be appreciated
Let all plant life be acknowledged
Let all the winged ones of the air
know your gratefulness

Great Spirit
thank you for all that is 
for all we take
we will give at least
our acknowledgment

Thank you for every mountain
and every grain of Sand
Water and Air
Fire and Earth
for every living thing
and for the Beauty of our lives this day we thank you. 

                                                                -Nancy E. "Smiling Dove" Eldredge
                                                                 (Nauset Wampanoag and Penobscot)

When was the last time I thanked the Air? Or the Water I drink? Or the path I walk on for supporting my feet? I am so struck by the simple truth that for everything I take I should at least give my acknowledgment, else I am just living in an entitled trance of selfishness and deluded entitlement.

Nothing in life is a given. No breath, no hug, no grain of sand, and no kernel of corn. To take a minute today and actually meditate on the tradition of acknowledgement from our indigenous communities, is I think to understand the true spirit of Thanksgiving. What they knew that we didn’t, is that this land is not ours for the taking, in some insane colonial, racist spirit of greed. The land gives and we are only visitors for a time, receiving a daily reprieve to walk upon it. To acknowledge it, is to honor it, to respect it, and give a spirit of love back to it. For we humans are not the only living things with a spirit. Spirit inhabits all things.

There is nothing better than love that is reciprocated. Today I’m imagining that by giving my love and acknowledgement back to the spirit of the world that loves and supports my life so generously, I am somehow helping to create a more harmonious and loving world.

Thanksgiving Grats: 

Thank you Bed 
for always welcoming me with open arms 
for your warmth
for the velvet coziness of your comforter
for teaching me how to take better care of me
to wash your sheets
to pull the covers up to the pillows in the morning, so my evening self can experience warmth at the end of a long day
thank you for cradling me while I sleep
while I cry
while I cuddle my babies
while I write this on my laptop
while I express love with my partner. 
I love you and acknowledge your utter perfection. 

Thank you Body
you've been through a lot 
and you keep going 
you walk and eat and work and carry so much, every day. 
You never stop breathing and healing and connecting and intuiting and holding my spirit with love. 
You recover too. How miraculous. 
Thank you. 
I love you and acknowledge your tenacity and strength. 

Thank you Air
for each refreshing breath 
for blowing the sands of the past away and making me new
for bringing the seasons and the scent of the sea
for filling my lungs with the strength to sing
for becoming cooler in the fall and sticky in the summer
for carrying seeds and bird song and the echoes of our ancestors
Thank you for reminding me to slow down and appreciate this one breath. 
I love you and acknowledge your magic. 

Thank you Water
for hydrating me today 
for your life-giving properties
for swimming pools and summer splashing
for cleaning my kids in their nightly bath and making bubble mustaches when it's time to play
your fluidity astounds me
the way you rush to the sea, no matter where you are
you always know where to go and never seem to doubt that spring will come again
thank you for refreshment and nourishment and baptism
without you, where would I be? 
Dead and dry and dusty. 
You teach me to flow like you over rocks and cliffs, trusting in my divine destination.
I adore you and acknowledge your miracles. 

Thank you Fire
for warming me and inspiring me to create
for candles and campfire
for cooking and lighting the way in the dark
for understanding my limitations and how to respect the power of destruction and creation
for keeping us alive in the winter
thank you for the fiery furnace of this earth 
your lava
your volcanos 
your all powerful heat
your lust
your fury
your passion. 
I love you and acknowledge your power. 

Thank you Mother Earth
for all that is green and breathing and alive
thank you for this bit of land you allow me to raise my children on
thank you for the wooded path by my house
thank you for seasons and the harvest
food and the circle of life
flowers and bugs and butterflies
owls and herons
lions and coral and penquins and coyotes
thank you for knowing how to heal yourself
for the mold in Chernobyl
for the feisty orcas 
for the mourning doves in the Oak tree outside my window
for every living thing you have created. 
Thank you. 
I love you and acknowledge your divine spirit. 

Thank you God
for everything. 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I hope you find a powerful patch of gratitude today and share it with your loved ones.

Fran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOZmkZ72ISI