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Dear Friends,
How does your faith tradition teach you to give thanks?
In Judaism, gratitude begins before your feet even touch the floor: Modeh Ani — “I give thanks” — is the first prayer of the morning.
In Buddhism, gratitude is a daily practice of interdependence: recognizing the countless people and systems that sustain our lives.
There’s a story in my own Christian tradition I often return to. Jesus encounters ten men with leprosy, who cry out to him for mercy. He sends them on their way, instructing them to seek proof that they are cleansed. Interestingly, it’s only in the going that their healing takes place. More remarkably, at least for Jesus, is the fact that only one in ten comes back to give thanks.
I must confess that it is all too easy for me to be like one of the nine men in the story. The crisis of our world — climate change, injustice, the needs of our neighbors — compels me to get moving. And yet, I know what it’s like to call out for help, and receive remarkable, even miraculous returns, and then forget to come back to a place of gratitude.
Over the last few months, we’ve asked, and you’ve answered. So I want to pause here and be sure I return thanks. I’d like to share how things have been going — how exactly our requests have been answered — so that we can mark the milestones with gratitude on our journey of progress for our climate and our neighbors.
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