Gratitude is

Hello friends,

I don’t celebrate US Thanksgiving. The holiday is based on a terrible history refracted through a white-washed lens. The impulse behind celebrating is understandable—let’s set aside a day to gather together in gratitude—but it’s the origins that I don’t wish to reclaim.

And there’s another thing: for me, gratitude is a daily thing. And I don’t mean this in some sort of toxic positivity, “think your problems gone” way. Gratitude is the bedrock of my practice.

If you’ve read my words or followed me on social networks for any length of time, you know how much I focus on the magic of the small things. And it is noticing that very magic that fills me with gratitude every day. No matter what is going on with my own struggles, or what terrible things are happening in the world, there is always some small thing to feel thankful for.

One thing I’m grateful for is that on Thursday, my partner and I got the chance to help out at an Indigenous-run community space, prepping their gardens for winter. Around four hundred people gathered to hear speakers and then help weed and mulch on a chilly late November day, under a gorgeous autumn-blue sky. The task my partner and I took on was helping to clear blackberry brambles, and anyone who lives in the Pacific Northwest knows that this is a massive and endless task!

It felt good to be out there with others, sweating in the cold, using muscles we might not usually engage, cutting and bundling and hauling the spiky vines as others worked together to clear weeds and invasive seed-heads.

But mostly? Thursday’s gathering reminded me of the power of community—even an ad hoc one such as we were. Together, we can accomplish a lot. The brambles that looked impossible to tackle when I first looked at them pretty swiftly came down because there were enough humans there to cut and haul and dig.

So I’m grateful for that, too. Grateful for the power of people working together. Grateful for shared vision of what the world can be.

And today? I’m also grateful for you.

Thank you for being here.

best wishes — Thorn

My story Days of Mourning is part of the WMG Holiday Spectacular this year! The story is free on my website for one week only. I hope you read it. If you like it, and want a copy to keep, consider subscribing to the Spectacular, which brings a short story to your inbox every day between now and January 1st! That’s forty stories in total, from the light-hearted and whimsical, to the darker and more poignant. Happy reading!