Gratitude is my religion

Here we are, in the month and season of giving thanks. It is also a reconciling of our nations past with the truth of harm committed on indigenous communities when settlers stepped foot on this continent. We may like to believe “Thanksgiving” is a holiday where peaceful breaking of bread and sharing of the harvest occurred between Native Americans and Pilgrims, but we know in our bodies and hearts that colonialism was and is not peaceful. The thought of devoting a holiday to gratitude is lovely, so how can we do it with honesty, sincerity and a new vision?

November is often a busy month for me and my family with the upcoming holiday, mulitple birthdays and a death anniversary of my brother, now 22 years ago. It comes with joy and stress both, and there is so much to straddle as I weave together challenges and grief from the past with vision and hope for the future, holding it all in present time.

Gratitude is a grounding force for me. I am currently teaching my 11 year old son the way of gratitude. When he feels overly excited, or worried, or sad, I ask him to think of 3 things he is grateful for in his life, right now, right here. As soon as he identifies them, such as I have food to eat, a place to live, friends, parents who love me, etc., his body calms down and his heart fills up. He realizes he doesn’t really need or want more or less, if only for a few moments. By nature, gratitude is shift in perception, which then opens him to experience more to be grateful for. As Lynne Twist says in The Soul of Money, “What we appreciate, appreciates.”

Sometimes life gives us perpetual hardship, difficulty, challenge, grief and fear. This is not your fault because you aren’t grateful enough. It is just how life is, and it can be more or less so for different folx in our world, based on different privileges and how our society is structured to promote different levels of safety and security. What is it like to have compassion for ourselves and others when we or they are having a rough time? We may not know the answer, we may be under control or abuse, we may feel anger or fear or sadness from horrific things that have happened to us. There are no wrong feelings. I am not suggesting that gratitude will protect any of us from suffering life’s imprint on us.

I am saying gratitude can be a spiritual offering. We can say thank you to the challenges, to the fear, to the grief, for guiding us on our own spiritual growth path of the truth of who we are and what we are here for. Thank you grief, for showing me how to mourn and how capable I am of love if I feel this depth of loss. Thank you fear, for showing me my humility, my humanity and the power of my heart. Thank you challenge, for showing me the next step in the direction I need to go, one baby step at a time, or one big leap of faith! it seems the more we practice gratitude, the more we see ourselves and others clearly.

I am curious to hear how gratitude plays a role in your life and perception. Please share any thoughts, questions, concerns with me. I am grateful for you. I feel gratitude for this life, in this body, in this moment.

Giving Thanks to to you and to it all,

Erin