November 2022
Greetings!
Is gratitude possible when everything sucks? Sharon Salzberg, the co-founder of Insight Meditation Society, author, and meditation teacher, reminds us that gratitude is essential to navigating the “suckiness.” Gratitude doesn’t have to be a grand thing. It can be as simple as waking up in the morning and being thankful for being here for another day. Simply, gratitude is a practice of turning towards remembering that you and I have something to have gratitude about.
I understand and hold gratitude and joy not by focusing only on the positive and avoiding dealing with my or the collective problems our communities face. It’s a practice that allows me to hold a duality of goodness and difficulty, joys and sorrows.
One cultural thread we are entangled in has been a promise that things should always be great or at least better. However, many of us, immigrants, first nation peoples, indigenous people, and minorities, come from experiences where there were hard times and there continue to be hard times. So hard times are not a new experience for most people in our communities. Gratitude and joy are essential because they sustain us so we can do what needs to be done in this world. And the challenges facing us are enormous - homelessness, gun violence, income inequality, threats to democracy, environmental degradation, and so much more.
We now have evidence that money does buy happiness if it supports our intention to be generous or compassionate. Along all that is broken, even the smallest acts of generosity can bring a sense of gratitude. Dalai Lama teaches that being altruistic gets you out of your head and out of your selfish concerns and imbues you with a sense of purpose, power, and a sense of fearlessness. That, to me, is a state of mind and heart that makes for a Happy Thanksgiving.
In gratitude for our connection and partnership.
