Exactly What are These Turkeys Communicating?

With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable.

 

I hope to be grateful,
No matter
What 
I
Am
Feeling.

Not matter
What
I am
Thinking,
I hope 
To remember
That
JOY IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT,

Not as a way of
Transcending 
The difficult,
The scary,
The dark,
The cold—

But as 
A way
To 
Keep 
Going
Through
It,

May
Gratitude
Be
The
Flashlight
That 
Guides
Us
Onward.

I choose to imagine 
The highest unfolding
For this country,
Our country.

I pray 
That
Our 
Many 
Shitty 
Options
Might
Soften
 Into 
Sanity,

That
Our riled up
Hostilities,
Softened
Into 
Community.

I choose to 
Lean
Toward
Gratitude
As we enter
That
Slippery
Slope,

The
Beginning 
Of
The 
Trifecta 
Of 
Self-care
Challenges—
Thanksgiving,
Christmas,
And
New Year’s.

With so
Much
Happening,

With
Not
So much 
Happening,

There continues
To be
Plenty 
For
Which
To
Be
Grateful.

I choose to 
See 
the squirrel,
Giant nut in mouth,

The dog
Across the way
Napping
In the sun,

The wind
Dancing
In the branches 
Of the trees.

I pray 
To keep 
My eyes
And 
My heart
Open,
that
gratitude
might 
fill 
me.

~~~

Friends,
Here is a story from my first book, Recovering My Voice, that I always read aloud to somebody, to anybody who might listen, on Thanksgivings.  It is the story of a political action in which I participated, Thanksgiving, 1979.

The story is entitled, Sorry We Stole It.

Disclaimer #1—it’s about 17 minutes long.  I almost want to apologize for that.  But I won’t.

Disclaimer #2—If you hear squeaking in the background, that is simply Niki B the Dog, wanting attention, not a random cat holding me hostage in my home.

Disclaimer- #3—I wrote this story probably twelve years ago.  Although I am a beginner in understanding my privileged perspective in matters of race, class, and societal inequities, LORD KNOWS I was even more of a beginner in 2008.  Apologies for my naivete and lack of insight.  I hope not to offend.  My intention is to represent myself as a thirty-one-year-old, struggling to align my feelings and my actions.

 

Thank you for allowing me to read this story, which continues to crack me up, to you.