Urgent Gratitude

There is a sense of urgent gratitude in the air this holiday season. Especially in these moments with wars and children in multiple countries exposed to unprecedented danger and trauma. The children in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Gaza, and other places in which conflict roars like a terrifying beast belong to all of us. We must take care of our families without turning our backs on the plight of others.

For me, the urgency calls me to reach out, to look into another person’s face and recognize they want what I want: food, shelter, safety for their children. If we fail to see those common threads and feel the symbiotic need we have for each other, we unravel. What is lost can be actual human lives, not just morals and opportunities to do well for the good of all.

Why did these thoughts cause me to select this image for this week of Thanksgiving? The Navajo Nation woman stands proudly wrapped in the embrace of her blanket. She projects with her gaze her indigenous history and people who have revered the land for generations. That heritage, framed in this precious rock formation, represents a connectedness we all crave. I invite you to see the vastness of possibility, the absence of paranoia. Instead of mistrust, there is paranoia’s antonym, pronoia. The word is used to refer to someone who believes the world is conspiring to do them well, not evil or harm. As the anchor or cornerstone, this belief offers a mindset of hope, well-being, generosity, gratitude. Carry the message into your work and your home this week.