Thanksgiving Day thoughts

Today I shared in a beautiful gratitude practice to 33 amazing yogis at Aditi Yoga. Preparing for this class, I had a challenging time as I thought about gratitude. For me gratitude as long been associated with positive and optimistic thoughts. And this year, in the light of the political and cultural climate that we're in, I found myself struggling to touch into this energy of gratitude. As I sat with this, I realized that I needed to accept and welcome the vulnerability, darkness and fear I was experiencing, and that if I could, I could actually have gratitude for all the difficulties I was experiencing and seeing around me. Turning to embrace this I found the following poems that helped ignite and inspire me and I shared with our group today. Enjoy!

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Quiet friend who has come so far
-Rilke
Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent Earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

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Don't hide your heart but reveal it,
so that mine might be revealed,
and I might accept what I am capable of.
-Rumi


Belonging
-Bernadette Miller
Belonging is a river
not a goal.
Every point is holy--
but you cannot linger there
without losing yourself
for you are the motion
of your journey.
No idea,
no attainment,
no goal,
can encompass
the truth
which lives only as it dies
into new life.
Your are the pain--
let it go.
Your are the joy--
let it go.
You are actions taken and not taken--
let them go.
Your are the dream--
let it go.
Move with the mark
of the unknown upon you
and life will enter your blood like a river.
This world was always holy
and you were always a rising flame
upon its altar.