we belong
poem
A Thanksgiving This land does not belong to us; we belong to the land. We are made of its dust and water and nourishing food. We give thanks for the webs of connection that support our life and flourishing: the woven strands of soil, microbes, rivers and oceans, cumulonimbus clouds, seed-spreading animals, dense snowpack, and tropical rainfall. We name the strands of the web we feel particular kinship to, and we give thanks: [All are invited to share a part of the world they are grateful for.] We belong to the world, and we are participants in its becoming. Breathe in gratitude, eat and drink gratitude, join the web in joy.
reflection
One under-recognized aspect of Thanksgiving as a holiday is its ecological dimension. Thanksgiving in its American context undeniably connects to harvest and abundance but so often we miss the invitation to ground ourselves more deeply in this reliance on and kinship with the land we inhabit.
Thanksgiving has a complex history worthy of longer exploration and reflection; in the meantime, this poem/prayer/invitation offers a way to resist trite or consumeristic notions of gratitude and to center the celebration on embodied reciprocity.
