Dear Ones:

Our ministry theme for November is, appropriately, gratitude. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: This is a season for focusing on all the blessings of our lives, all our sources of joy, all that we love, all that makes us feel hopeful, all for which we are grateful. If you’ve ever wanted to begin a gratitude practice but haven’t quite gotten around to it, now is the time!!

I love this reading entitled Thanksgiving from my colleague, the Rev. Lynn Ungar, originally published in her 1996 meditation manual, Blessing the Bread:

I have been trying to read

the script cut in these hills—

a language carved in the shimmer of stubble

and the solid lines of soil, spoken

in the thud of apples falling

and the rasp of corn stalks finally bare.

The pheasants shout it with a rusty creak

as they gather in the fallen grain,

the blackbirds sing it

over their shoulders in parting,

and gold leaf illuminates the manuscript

where it is written in the trees.

Transcribed onto my human tongue

I believe it might sound like a lullaby,

or the simplest grace at table.

Across the gathering stillness

simply this: For all that we have received,

dear God, make us truly grateful.

In the end, it’s a very simple prayer. May I be grateful. Simple words to say, yes, but for so many reasons—complicated reasons—gratitude can be difficult to truly feel. So I urge you, in this season of thanksgiving, to study the script cut into the hills, the thud of falling apples, the pheasants’ rusty creak, the departing blackbirds’ song, the trees’ gold-leaf illuminated manuscript. Study with an eye toward gratitude. Do you feel it?

If not, then sing a lullaby. Say a simple grace. And whether or not you have a concept of divinity, try pronouncing Rev. Ungar’s words out loud: For all that I have received, dear God, make me truly grateful.

For all that we have received, may we be grateful. And may our gratitude transform our lives.

Amen. Blessed be.

Rev. Josh

#NovemberNewsletter