Radical Gratitude

It is Thanksgiving in two days in the United States. I often joke that this is my favorite holiday, so I celebrate it every day. Of course, when I say that, I am not talking about the historical holiday, which is mired in controversy. I am talking about the practice of gratitude. That is worth practicing daily.

Life is an incredible blessing made up of the sacred elements: light, air, water, and earth. The sun is 93 million miles away and gives off just the right amount of light, warmth, and energy. The plants and phytoplankton provide us the sacred oxygen we need to breathe, and we (mammals) return to them in a sacred circle what they need (our outbreath of carbon dioxide). Approximately 70% of the Earth is covered in oceans; and that same percentage of water is found within our own bodies. Earth’s oceans, rivers, and streams are mirrored by our arteries, veins, and capillaries. And it doesn’t stop there. Our bones are like the rocks of Earth, and many of the most important elements, such as oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, are contained within our own bodies, as are many essential minerals, including calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulfur, and magnesium.

We are a microcosm of the macrocosm. We get to live on an immensely beautiful planet of abundant food and water, and that beauty is reflected inside us. How miraculous is that? I remind myself daily what a blessing life is. That is why I celebrate Thanksgiving every day.

I have learned the most from elders who practice radical gratitude. Grandfather Leon Secatero was the headman for the Canoncito Band of Navajo and one of my greatest teachers. His people had been rounded up at bayonet point by Kit Carson in the 1860s and forcibly marched from Canyon de Chelley (now in Arizona) to Fort Sumner (now in New Mexico), a distance of 300 miles in what became known as The Long Walk. Before they were rounded up, the government burned down their fruit trees and brought them to the brink of starvation. They marched in a weak state, and many thousands perished. Despite this tragic lineage, Leon used to pray to the four directions every morning, and when he prayed to the west, he prayed out of gratitude “to the ancestors and for everything that has happened to bring him (and all of creation) to this moment in time.” If this man whose people had suffered so much historical trauma could live from a place of radical gratitude, so can I. Leon looked at all of life as a blessing. It is very healing to look at life this way.

Now I realize that many people dread Thanksgiving. They anticipate sitting around the table with relatives that have polar opposite political views. Maybe your crazy uncle or aunt drinks too much and becomes inappropriate in what they say or do. I get that. But before you get too upset, consider this: we are all more alike than different. We are five-fingered, two-legged ones that stand between Mother Earth and Father Sky. We are all born from darkness and grow toward the light. We are all sentient beings that develop different views based on a myriad of factors: our parents, gender, the nation and region we were raised, the news media we listen to, the teachers and mentors we once had, our race, religion, education, language, and so forth. All of this tends to lead us toward a set of assumptions, biases, and prejudices through which we filter our worldview. We can choose to be with only people who believe as we do, and that can be comforting, even supportive. But we can also choose, at least occasionally, to be with people who think completely differently than we do.

Liberals and conservatives are two aspects of one whole. We need both. There is a natural process of change in living organisms that could be called progress; there is also a time when nature needs to conserve, and this stored potential energy can be called upon when needed. The impetus to rapidly change has been the dominant force since the industrial revolution. But too much change in a short period of time can cause problems. The rush to progress has caused rampant pollution to our water, air, and soil, so I find it ironic that “progressives” are now the ones who advocate for environmentalism in US politics. In Europe, conservatives actually focus on conserving the environment, unlike my own country, where conservatism is more about laissez-faire capitalism. It is sometimes worse, reduced to conserving the privilege of the upper class at the expense of others. The emergence of the current president occurred out of a dissatisfaction with loss of jobs and prestige, particularly but not only among white men. In my view, these changes were mostly the result of automation and AI, but immigrants and people of color were blamed. This is not the first time in US history that immigrants have become the scapegoats during periods of change. It has happened periodically, most notably in the 1840s and 1850s with the rise of the American Party (also known as the Know Nothing Party) that objected to the influx of German and Irish immigrants, and also to the spread of Catholicism.

Of course, many of us look forward to the holidays. Those that do are most likely blessed by understanding parents, grandparents, sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. When our relatives are loving and accepting of us, this is nurturing and empowering. Yet sometimes the people closest to us are the ones who hurt us the most. They are most likely not trying to do so. They are like porcupines, protecting their soft belly by striking out with their quills. What can we do in such a case? Instead of focusing on how they make us feel, we might take this as an opportunity to “practice warm-heartedness” toward them, as the Dalai Lama calls it. We can make a greater effort to understand them and have them feel safe, and if we do that, they might even change, at least with you.

If there is someone in our family that is difficult to understand, ask questions. Find out how they arrived at that point of view. And truly listen. If we listen for the sake of understanding rather than just to counter with our own viewpoint, we might just learn something. Everyone wants to be heard. Everyone wants to feel included and welcome. This, it seems to me, is the real meaning of love: radical inclusion and acceptance of people and nature as they are. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone.

Many blessings,

Glenn