This past weekend Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving. It has taken me a while to accept the second weekend in October as the date for this fine event, but I have come to feel that the season of harvest fullness is every bit as appropriate, no, actually much more appropriate, than dreary and soggy, late November! We had a lovely gathering, and a delicious meal.
What are you grateful for? For me the list is endless (and not diminished by the acknowledgement of concurrent suffering and ignorance in the world, though at times it is a challenge to hold them both).
A few posts have come my way recently that jolted me into awe and appreciation, and I would like to share them with you.
My dear brother, Jim, sent along this first one. Here’s the link. It’s a TEDx talk by Louie Schwartzberg called Gratitude. His award winning, time-lapse photography will take your breath away. The images and comments underscore our links to the natural world, our interconnectedness, and represent pure beauty. A child and an old man talk to us as well, and invite us to experience fully and deeply the enormous number of gifts we receive each unique day, and then to let our appreciation ripple out as a blessing on others! I love watching this and I hope you do too. (Also check out this trailer for his film Wings of Life: A love story that feeds the earth — about earth’s unsung pollinators.)
Moni, my Austrian daughter-in-law, sent this one along. Most of have two legs and arms and don’t feel all that moved by our bodies! I enjoyed the pure movement of this duet, and then sensing my own arms and legs, feeling gratitude and presence — for my own unsung limbs and our incredible capacity for movement, healing, for our journeys of becoming. I hope you do too!
What a grand adventure our lives are! How often are we in touch with this, with celebration, gratitude, wonder and awe? This is the one life we’ve been given. And this is the only today. And this is right now.
Jill Schroder is the author of BECOMING: Journeying Toward Authenticity. Check the website for a sample chapter, or see the reviews to get a flavor for the volume.