Thanks-giving, Thanks-living

Giving back, with gratitude

Greetings! I woke up thinking: this article is so dry, its like toast with only a tiny smear of butter. (I wrote it in airport lounges and planes yesterday while on my final leg of travel.) I tried to sweeten it a wee bit this morning but alas, it had already gone out into the world via email. So I’m adding this note to say: please bring some of your own generous pat of butter or favorite jam to spread onto this article today as you read it!

Dear ones,

Today, I’m thinking about the basics: 

Food and water.

Shelter and safe space.

Connection and purpose.

Having these foundations allows us to expand as humans: to dream, to vision, to create, to explore. 

When food, shelter, or connection are missing or damaged in some way, our world narrows down to survival. Our attention is consumed by feeding ourselves or our family. Our focus collapses into getting the next meal, fear for our bodies or our children, or the heaviness of loneliness and isolation.

Sometimes, when food, shelter, and connection are abundant we can get complacent, unappreciative, and forget that not everyone has the basics. 

Or on the other extreme, we can feel guilty for our fullness when others have lack.

Today, let’s bring our gratitude to what we have. Let’s also bring our soft hearts, mindfulness, action, and prayers to those who are in lack in any way. Let’s praise the abundance around us and turn our attention to the richness that surrounds us, while also being aware of the despair of the hungry, lost, and scared among us.

It is so tender when we acknowledge the abundance and acknowledge the lack. To name the wealth and the poverty, and how there are many ways to be wealthy, and many ways to be poor. We become more courageous when we can look into disparity of human experience, in this moment and time: some of us are well-fed and housed, some of us are being bombed and fleeing war; some of us are sitting down to huge meals, some of us are trying to figure out to feed our children.

All of us are yearning for, and deserve food, shelter, love.

Ways to bring thanks-giving to every day: 

- At each meal, slow down to bring your gratitude to every bite. 

- When you are looking through your fridge or cupboards, bless the abundance

- When you are in the grocery store give thanks for the immense choices and availability of food

- Say thank you regularly to your home and how it shelters you

- Learn the history of the people who stewarded/cared for the land you currently live on (visit native-land.ca/)

- Get to know and support the farmers in your area: visit the farmers market or do a google search for local farms

- Before you eat take a moment to think about all the people (and beings) who brought the food to your table: farmers, workers, delivery drivers, grocery store clerks, soil, earthworms, rain…)

- What other ways can you say thank you for the blessings?

Ways to foster thanks-living:

- Donate to your local food bank regularly

- Volunteer for organizations in your community like Meals or Wheels or Loaves and Fishes

- Set aside one day a month to make food for a neighbor in need

- Skip a meal or a day of eating once a month and dedicate the money or time to others who are in need

- Be creative in how you could give back to your community. One couple I knew cooked for their entire neighborhood once year in honor of their anniversary.  Another friend would bring his portable stove on Easter morning and make pancakes and bacon for unhoused folks in the park.

- How else could you deepen living your gratitude?

And if you feel a lack in the basics, please reach out and get support… you don’t have to do it alone. How can you allow help and support in?

Share some of your blessings below… What feeds you? What sustains you?

Gratitude to you, from my heart to yours. May we keep deepening our gratitude and using our abundance, privilege, and resources to enrich our local and global human and more than human family.