We are moving toward our Nation’s “Thanksgiving Day.” We are Americans by birth and by adoption . . . by citizenship and by gift of place . . . And, at the same time, we are the people of the earth, people whose lives are blessed with love and hope as well as those whose days are shadowed by darkness and despair.

We are young and old, skin of black and brown and yellow and red and no color worth mentioning. Our languages are English and Spanish and Arabic . . . Russian and Urdu and Swahili and Farsi and Sign . . .

We are women and men . . . boys and girls . . . hearing and deaf . . . sighted and blind . . . We are gay and straight and transsexual and those for whom sexual identity is a faint memory . . . We are lovers of pets and children and ourselves, and we are humans whose store of love is hard to find. We are celebrators and grievers, runners and hikers and complex weavers of life. We are artists and poets and writers and dancers, and we are those whose creativity is blocked or exhausted . . . And, with people north and south, west and east, we are all saying “thank you” We are recalling reasons to be grateful because to do otherwise would surrender to life’s pain. We are gardeners and teachers and library keepers . . . We are parents and children, brothers and sisters, cousins and aunts and uncles too . . . We are widows and newlyweds . . . lovers and alone . . . We are office workers and health care providers . . . We are creators who love what we do and employees who long to set our mundane jobs aside . . . We are those for whom productive life is just beginning and those whose memories are mixed up inside . . . And we, with people around the world, we are saying “thank you” because gratitude is what WE need most this day. We are doves setting forth from the humanity’s fragile ark in search of peace. We are bears longing to hibernate and make the world go away. We are pacifists and soldiers, Democrats and Republicans . . . Theists and pagans, Buddhists and Christians, humanists and atheists and a whole bunch of us who are spiritually confused. We are gathered here in the hope of Thanksgiving. We are gathered in the gratitude of Grace. May the Spirit of Life and Healing be with us all this day . . . Comforting all for whom this season is one of loss and pain . . . Honoring those who step forward to protect, or rescue, or serve in their country’s name . . . Tickling those who need reminders that, even in the midst of tragedy and confusion, There will be bubbles of joy – and those are okay. May we believe always that Life does hold blessings for each one of us to take, At all times, in all ways, may “thank you” be the language of our days.

© Maureen Killoran, SpiritQuest Coaching, 2004