Thanks Giving
In the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address ~ the “words before all else” ~ greetings and gratitude are given to the natural world. Thanks and honor are offered to the earth mother, the waters and their fish, the food plants and medicinal herbs, to the animals, trees, birds and the four winds, to the sun, grandmother moon, the stars, and the creator.[i] This prayer of gratitude opens all gatherings and ceremonies; these words of thanks are indeed “the words before all else.” When we practice this thanks-giving daily, we learn that the one who gives thanks is blessed in a miraculous way. The transformative grace of gratitude permeates the mind and the heart, it heals the body and soul. It fosters balanced communities and lays a foundation of peace. Let us learn that Thanksgiving need not come once a year, but can be a way of life.
The following poem, from my book A Litany of Wild Graces,[ii] is a prayer of thanks-giving.
Autumn Light
Daylight’s eve,
autumn forest beeches
slowly give way to splendor
day by day surrender
cinnamon
copper
beaten gold
drench down each leaf
stem to tip.
Chlorophyll’s emerald
summer display recedes,
beech roots sprawl
wide and shallow,
dense thickets of
root-sprouted seedlings
lean close, clinging.
Oak sapling’s outsized leaves
leap out red,
shouting…look…look…
Autumn evening light
~ radiant ~
pours honey thick
upon late fall begonias,
betrays their open green trust
as mercury drops
now one degree, now another.
Solomon’s seal
in balanced wisdom
has decreed
a trove of gold-leaf
carried on a clear white moon.
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[i] Click here to find a luminous rendering of this primary prayer of the Haudenosaunee people: https://danceforallpeople.com/haudenosaunee-thanksgiving-address/
[ii] Order a copy here https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-litany-of-wild-graces-meditations-on-sacred-ecology-sharifa-oppenheimer/18375938?ean=9781954744622