Thanksgiving As Beginning, Not As Destination
where do we go from here?
Friends,
In the United States, it’s Thanksgiving Week, and, hardly anyone would know it, but the day after Thanksgiving is Native American Heritage Day.
And I feel a lot like the way it feels with a lot of things, how the build up to something is so big, so epic, so monumental—get Thanksgiving right or get out of the way.
But I want something different this year. In the same way that I don’t necessarily endorse New Year’s resolutions in the sense that they are supposed to last all year—we need seasonal resolutions and goals—I wouldn’t endorse Thanksgiving to be the destination for us.
This year, I want Thanksgiving to be a beginning, not a destination.
In other words, I want us to show up tenderly to this moment, whether it’s in our personal lives or in our collective ones. I want us to think of Thanksgiving as a marker on our journey, or the beginning of something, not the final destination.
I think we put too much pressure on ourselves—to change, to say the right thing, to deal with people in the ways we think we should, to read the right books, to post the right things to social media. This is where the tenderness of words, of poetry, of the prophets of our time speak to us.
Slow down. Let the words come as they come. Don’t rush this process. You will be ready for everything when you’re ready.
It feels drastically different than what we say out there, though. These are the words of the soul, of the center of us, the spaces where we are tending to deep work that is meant to last.
In my book Living Resistance the last chapter is about livelong resistance, and I did that on purpose. I wanted to end my entire book with this idea that we are just beginning, again and again, starting new journeys, unlearning and learning something, re-crafting our world.
We have arrived, but we are still arriving.
So it is with something like this, a holiday that is complex, colonial in its origins, but meant to represent something tender and sacred: giving thanks.
As we move toward and around giving thanks, we do so with our hearts cast in all directions, remembering where we’ve come from, who we are in this very moment, and the future we long for.
As Wordsworth said, “To begin, begin.”
This week, we begin. We decide where we want to start from—the truth about Thanksgiving, holding nuance and complexity, honoring the sacredness of Mother Earth, or all of the above.
We begin here, knowing that the journey is lifelong, that it isn’t just this holiday season, but the coming cold winter months that will guide us home to ourselves, the sacred Earth always tending to our wounds with us.
That is where we begin, and that is how we hold space for a destination beyond and above us.
We have arrived, but we are still arriving.
This is brilliant, Kaitlin. This essay is one of the most tender, compassionate and embracing pieces I have read or heard about the paradox of Thanksgiving. Acknowledging and being aware of the troublesome origins of the holiday, while not rejecting the notion of gratitude and sharing. I say this every time, but thank you for your kind wisdom that helps light the way!
A beginning,
fresh eyes,
softened heart,
tendered. Is a beautiful way to show up this Thanksgiving.
Your words Kaitlin have widened my perspective and stretched my arms to receive the notion, “ there is more to the story.” The white-washed story I was taught in a tiny classroom growing up in Pennsylvania, the story of how Thanksgiving really came to be and the meaning that truly matters as I have come to know as an adult. The learning and un-learning I do with my family so we hold a li’l sorrow as well as celebration understanding this day represents so much more than we once believed. Thank you Kaitlin.
I am grateful for you and your bravery in creating a circle where community can hold the whole of the story, the bitter and the sweet and recognize our health and wealth resides in the way we can find our way back to Mother Earth and one another. Living Tribally is our way through this time may we tend to each other gently and kindly.