The practice of gratitude, Thanksgiving Day poems

Yesterday on the way to teach my benefit class for Thanksgiving Day I saw not one, not two, but three rainbows over the course of about 5 minutes. It was breathtaking, it was awe inspiring and it also reminded me how much I had lost touch with every day wonder and joy. These past two years have felt overwhelming at best as we navigate all the challenges of our social and political systems. Instead of taking moments in the day to see joy, I'm often focusing my energy on what is broken. It made me take the gratitude I practice on Thanksgiving all the more seriously. Its not to say I won't stop paying attention and I won't stop fighting injustices I see in the world, but it is recognizing that I need to spend more time practicing gratitude around the every day miracles and wonders happening in my life around me. It was a powerful reminder and one I was so grateful to receive.

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In line with that, I shared three poems during our class yesterday. I hope you find inspiration in them as I did:

it was when I stopped searching for home within others
and lifted the foundations of home within myself
if found there were no roots more intimate
than those between a mind and body
that have decide to be whole
-Rupi Kaur

​If I knew that
​everything I believed
and more was true--
what would I do? I'd 
wake up and let life
take me as its own.
I'd point at fear and 
say, "You're not real."
​(I'd say this kindly.)
​I wouldn't forget that
I am linked to every
flower, fox, fantasy
and planet. I'd let 
love in, and each day
I'd stretch a little more
until I could embrace
the whole horizon.
I'd sip green tea and
savor the taste of 
oatmeal raisin cookies.
​I'd welcome whatever
came next and know
that the love in your 
eyes could change me
forever if I let it.
-Danna Faulds

Enough
It’s enough to offer love,
no matter how imperfectly
received or given. It’s
enough to try and fail at
a difficult task; enough
to fall and rise, stumble,
fall again, sigh, and start
to walk, however slowly,
in the direction the soul
points. It’s enough to
seek peace and find pain,
to gain nothing but a
vision of truth, and take
the long route home.
It’s enough to feel
temptation, the dance
of the senses, the hot
pull of desire; enough
to call on God, walk
through fire, sleep and
cry and fear or welcome
dying. It’s enough to be
and breathe, to feel the
touch of wind on skin.
It’s enough to take the
day as it comes, to watch
the ripples on the lake as
the rock sinks to the
bottom, to see the wild
reflection of the surface
calm into a mirror once
again. It’s enough to
hear the voice of fear
and hide – or seek it out
and face the shame or
shadows. It’s enough
to set out to tame demons
and watch them multiply
instead. It’s enough to
be buffeted by the winds
of change and not be blown
over. I and you and all
of us, more than enough.
-Danna Faulds