This Sunday as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, I encourage you to find a space of gratitude and spend some time there. To me, this is an inner space, but not limited to just our inner life. There are certainly outer spaces that hold gratitude for each of us. Outer spaces can kick start an inner opening; outer spaces can provide structure and sanctuary that ground us, giving us a kind of freedom and safety to feel, listen, explore what are often are structureless emotions. We need a space, inner or outer, to access genuine gratitude.
The culture is already bombarding us with 'standard protocol' (who to see/what to do/where to be, what to eat/drink, how to feel) in expectation of Thanksgiving Day. These scripts are in addition to our own group dynamics and family traditions. The news this weekend predicts over 55 million Americans will travel this week. Weather predictions in the East Coast areas warn of storms, setting the stage for disruptions and possible emergencies, mixing positive anticipation of visits with more anxiety. Black Friday marketing, now fused with not just the day after Thanksgiving, but what has become a season of bargains and savvy shopping, adds to the cultural menu. And, the background of larger world issues: war, climate change, political conflicts (including history), can weigh heavy like the impending storms.
Despite all this, a collective practice of Thanksgiving holds powerful positive possibilities. It connects us not just a challenged American myth, but the reality of ancient, even timeless, feast days across the globe, arising from human dependency on one another and on the natural world. Gratitude to the forces of life, for sustaining life and specifically human life, extends beyond humanity and nature, to mystery, to reverence, and an impulse--the heart's pull to thank the very Source of life we call God, in all It's forms and names.
To truly be a part of that pull, that prayer, that communion, we need a space for gratitude, an empty space, a space for the real, not fabricated or forced. We let gratitude sprout. Your heart/mind/body does not need you to force yourself to be grateful. This has nothing to do with what you should, ought, or must feel. If no gratitude arises, just hold the space reserved for it. Listen to what is real and true for you, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem to the manufactured world. Gratitude is a seed. It will grow, it will be real, and much needed in this world. Happy Thanksgiving. (Susan Nettleton)
For poetic reflection: https://hillsidesource.com/lifes-energy-larry-poem
https://www.poetseers.org/.../mary-oliver-poems/the-sun/
https://grateful.org/.../because-of-libraries-we-can-say.../