When Thanksgiving approaches, I feel a warmth, a comfort, a deep sense of gratitude for everything in life that we are blessed with. Not that I do not feel it every day- I count my thanks at each of our daily prayers. But the idea of formal celebration and rituals has always been important to faiths and nations, families and tribes and is part of our human psyche. So, Thanksgiving Day becomes a family reunion that is fun but also a reminder to deepen our daily gratitude and giving practices.
Where does one start and end with gratitude- it is infinite! Let’s try for fun- we could be grateful for the fact that we were born on this planet- yes, there is a 1 in 4T chance that we make it to our mother’s womb- see
https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2016/09/29/the-chances-of-you-being-born-you-are-1-in-400-trillion-act-like-the-miracle-you-are/ ; that we had loving parents who devoted their lives to our well-being- did we ever miss a meal in our life? No, and isn’t that something to be eternally grateful for?; siblings and relatives who care for us and love us unconditionally; children and grandchildren that are the center of our lives; friends who love us, inspire us and have fun with us; we have our health, our careers and our spirit to work hard and to create new ideas and new things in our fields, to meet challenges with grace, to celebrate what we accomplish, to learn new things continuously, to seek out those who need help and give our time to them when we can; to witness the evil – yes- even witnessing the evil and praying for those under it yoke is a spiritual act too; that we live in a free society with all the amenities, with security, with law and order, with resources and opportunities to contribute throughout our lives. I recently saw a video of Pakistani doctors without jobs serving mango drinks in a dhaba (shack) by the roadside; And while our society has reached the limits of hyper capitalism (endless growth and corruption with no compassion for the poor or the planet), hyper individualism and materialism (celebrity and show-off culture) , hate & violence (shootings, hate speech), greed(CEO pay), and a new global era is called for, it is still the best society to live in for now.
At our recent Dining for Women’s meeting, we were bemoaning the country of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) that is ruled by a rich king who has14 Rolls Royce’s, yet 70% of the population lives under a $1 a day, and a whole generation has been wiped out by AIDS- just think about those poor grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren and trying to make pennies by selling chickens or stitching bags. The grim stories are infinite, and where war and evil combine to imprison whole populations (e.g. Palestine, Kashmir, Chinese Muslims, Rohingya, etc.) we can only helplessly watch things get from bad to worse. One of the benefits of my renewed practice of daily morning meditation is to keep calm and develop equanimity in the face of this hopelessness- I am deepening my practice of surrender and acceptance.
Fortunately, I have had the inclination, passion and time to follow new developments by thought leaders, authors, spiritual leaders, who are all listening to the silent screams of billions living in poverty (did you know 9 men in the world own more wealth than the bottom 4 Billion people combined!) and who actually care to make the world better, and have devoted their lives to it. Sometimes they are my own friends, like Chris Laszlo who just co-authored a book with Fred Tsao called “Quantum Leadership”, which essentially aims to reawaken and transform the consciousness of corporate CEO’s who control so much of the world’s wealth and power so that they can effect a global consciousness transformation; sometimes it is young millennials like Sami Yusuf (https://samiyusufofficial.com/ ), who started out as being called the Islamic rock star, but who rejects that title and has termed his work “Spiritique” to symbolize the love and unity of all human beings; in addition to an amazing new music genre he has devoted much of his income to African droughts, Pakistani floods, Haitian earthquake, etc. And sometimes it is smaller and simpler things, like my son-in-law Eric Honan, who has decided to go vegan, because he believes the planet will benefit from less meat-eaters- we wish you continued courage Eric! Or Zain Khan, my friendAzra Khan‘s son, who is a committed peace activist. I have a lot of hope in the millennials- they will transform the world Inshallah. So, I wish all of my friends a Happy Thanksgiving and renewed gratitude and giving!
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