Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer.
~Maya Angelou

Allegiance to Gratitude

Allegiance to Gratitude is the title of a chapter in the widely discussed book by Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass- Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. In that chapter, Kimmerer, a mother, botanist, professor of Environmental Biology at SYNU and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation introduces the Thanksgiving Address used by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois or Six Nations -Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscaora. The people of the Six Nations are from upstate New York and Canada. This message of peace and appreciation for the Earth, also called Greetings and Thanks to the Natural World, is still spoken at ceremonial gatherings and meetings held by the Six Nations. Children also are taught to greet each morning with these words, saying thanks to all living beings. The entire universe -from the sun and the stars to the smallest of plant- is addressed as one great community. Kimmerer calls it a lesson in Native Science as: “.. each element of the ecosystem is named in its turn, along with its function”.
As it is my turn to lead the Awake In the Wild daily nature meditation this Sunday November 22, just a few days before the celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States, I am inspired to use this Native American text. Wanting to avoid any cultural appropriation, I reached out to the Six Nations and explained the context for my use of the text. I was blessed by a response from the Onondaga Historical Association in Syracuse, NY and a little note of introduction to the text from Onondaga clan mother and teacher Freida Jacques. She wrote:

“It is imperative that efforts be made to help humans on earth change their values for survival. Appreciating and understanding our total dependency on the earth’s elements working as Creator meant them to be, is one. Our misuse of water and abuse of our air and treatment of animals to name a few reflect this loss of respect for important elements of Creation. If you look at humanity’s recent history on earth it is obvious that respect has been lost for many of the important elements on Earth. In Haudenosaunee culture our Thanksgiving Address helps us remember to be respectful and appreciate Creation.”

So emboldened by the positive reply, the alignment of intentions as well as my understanding of the text as an acknowledgement of our diversity which -like all the wonders of Nature- is truly a gift for which we are thankful, I am humbly providing here a link to the Thanksgiving Address from the National Museum of the American Indian and will be using it in my gratitude meditation.

“You can’t listen to the Thanksgiving Address without feeling wealthy” writes Kimmerer. And as Freida Jacques explains in Kimmerer’s book:

“It reminds you every day that you have enough. More than enough. Everything needed to sustain life is already here. When we do this, every day, it leads to an outlook of contentment and respect for all of Creation….The Thanksgiving Address is a reminder we cannot hear too often, that we human beings are not in charge of the world, but are subject to the same forces as all of the rest of life.”

And I want to conclude this post with Kimmerer’s last words in her Allegiance to Gratitude chapter:

“Every day, with these words, the people give thanks to the land. In the silence that falls at the end of those words, I listen, longing for the day when we can hear the land give thanks for the people in return.”

I too long for the day when we can hear the land give thanks for the people in return. What about you?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Anne-Marie

PS: If you want to participate in this Sunday’s morning meditation, you can register on the Awake In The Wild website with the link below. The recording will be available on YouTube with this link after the event.

The Second Step Toward The Future We Choose:
Bringing Climate to the Conversation Table and Listening

Engaging with climate change is about
engaging with who we are as human beings.
~Renée Lertzman (Climate Psychologist)

Last month I suggested that the first step towards engaging for climate action, was to vote. Now that the elections are behind us and can rejoice in the prospect of the USA rejoining the Paris Agreement, let’s take the next step. Another important engagement is to bring up the topic in regular conversational exchanges. In too many situations, the climate crisis is the elephant in the living room or in the boardroom. Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication writes:

“Climate change has become one of the taboo topics, like sex, politics and religion, that does not get talked about ..”

In the recently published Yale Climate Opinion Maps 2020 study that this same organization conducted, one finding is that 64% of the adults in the USA never or rarely discuss global warming while 72% agree that it’s happening.
So it’s happening but we are not to talk about it? Why is this such a hard topic to engage with and how best to bring it up?
Well for a start, no one wants to be a downer at the Thanksgiving table and the topic is sensitive for a lot of people. It can also brings up some negative emotions of shame, guilt and anxiety. However, I want to offer two graphs as conversation starters that I am hoping you can use around the dinner table: one is about the impact of our food consumption from Our World in Data.The second one from OverShootDay.org displays Country Overshoot Days per country and easily compares the footprint of nations around the world. Each graph and associated article can be a somewhat neutral and light(er) place to start discussing whether or not our diets and lifestyles are sustainable and what we can do about it. And your job as you bring these up, if you do, is to listen. Listen to what your friends and family members have to say, listen beyond the words and find the connection, the shared humanity that lies in discussing our life on earth.

And if you really want to do a deep dive into climate change communication around the holidays, the organization that I trained with in the Spring, Climate Change Coaches in the U.K. is having a workshop on the topic in early December. The workshop is titled: “How not to have an argument about climate change this Christmas… or any other time!”

And if this is a topic you would like to discuss with me, feel free to sign up for a free exploration conversation.