But resistance begins at the bend in soul, where gratitude runs like a great river, stirring everything and everyone in its path, cleansing impotent habits and calling lovers to daring new moments. Resistance begins there, in gratitude.
So let us be grateful today for the great rivers, our global veins, and the little streams too.
And let us be grateful today for the maple trees and their bright red garments, which they will soon shed for winter's slumber.
And let us be grateful today for the spiders that freak us out and the coyotes that howl at night.
And more, even more, let us be grateful today for the prophets who stand at the intersection of hatred and poverty, and say, "No more!"
And more, even more, let us be grateful today for the young boy will come out to his family at Thanksgiving dinner, because he knows--HE TRULY KNOWS--he is created in the image of God.
And more, even more, let us be grateful today for the good neighbors who will give their time and energy today, to feeding those who hunger, to clothing whose who shiver in the cold, to sheltering the brokenhearted.
No empire can survive the generative grace of our gratitude. No despot can withstand the wild winds of genuine thanksgiving. No clumsy bully can outlive the deep and sustained practice of a people's lovingkindness.
We are grateful. We will always resist. And we shall overcome.
DGJ (11.23.17)
