Gratitude for thorns

This Thanksgiving I’m grateful for the rebels and the outcasts, the instigators and the disrupters, the enemies of empire and the dreamers of a unified humanity… For the political prisoners writing from their cells, for the elders at Standing Rock who peacefully stand for clean water and the justice denied them for generations. For the teachers who open young minds to broken systems that they benefit from, and for the wisdom of those on the underside of power - women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community etc - who refuse to bow to the myth of redemptive violence. For the journalists who have been arrested for covering the stories of corruption the FOR-profit media won’t. For politicians who forego “success” to stand in integrity with and for the people (they DO exist!) and for privileged whites who choose to lay down their power for the sake of others. For the singers who put music to the cry of our souls that long for justice …and for poets and storytellers who fashion new ways to inspire us toward our full humanity. For the pastors, priests, monks and Imams who refuse to fall prey to their own tradition’s narrow dogmatism, exclusion and divisiveness. For the awakened guides of the human spirit who beckon us to finally grow up in a world of perpetual adolescence.To such beacons of light, life and love, I salute you. I raise a glass …and a fist.For Ida B Wells & Nelson Mandela & Faith Ringgold…for Jesus & St Francis & Alicia Keys. For David Whyte & Rage Against the Machine & Leonard Cohen & Eddie Vedder. For Gautama Buddha & Sri Aurobindo & Paramahansa Yogananda, & Harvey Milk & Ryan White & Sami Awad. For Richard Rohr & Desmond Tutu & Bill Plotkin & Brian Swimme & Joanna Macy. For Leonard Peltier & Richard Twiss & Chief Joseph & Black Elk. For Jon Huckins & Jer Swigart. For Marcus Borg & Bishop Spong & Matthew Fox & Ilia Delio & Chris & Phileena Heuertz. For Rob Bell & Ram Dass & Barbara Brown Taylor & Rigoberto Menchu & Leymah Gbowee & Dr King & Ron Kovic & Leo Tolstoy & Dorothy Day….And so many many many more. May we turn our gratitude into embodied action, lest we simply worship what we were actually meant to become.