Giving Thanks Is No Longer Enough: Why We Need Each Other To Be Whole Again
Ancestral Pueblo community village circa 900-1300 CE - Mesa Verde, Colorado
What is Thanksgiving really about? It’s not about the turkey. It’s not just about gratitude. It’s not even about the pilgrims and Native Americans having a peaceful meal together 400 years ago....
It’s about having the opportunity to pretend — if only for a few hours — that everything is OK.
When you come together with your family or friends and loved ones, no matter how difficult and confronting it might be at times, that’s when deep down it actually does feel like everything is going to be OK. Because that is the only time it really is— when we come together.
That is SO important!!
For 100,000 years, humans have thrived in community. In tribes. For the greatest part of this time— nomadic tribes. We had to stick together, because it was a matter of sheer survival. We couldn't do it on our own.
Even with the developments of agriculture and civilization, we had to stay together. Why??
Because we may have been created in Goddess's own image, but that does not mean we are each a complete and perfect entity to ourselves.
WE NEED EACH OTHER.
Our gifts as humans are HUGE. We have incredible abilities. But it is not until our abilities and the needs they fulfill come together that we are made whole. And that happens only in community.
Since the advent of the industrial age we have unprecedented opportunities for wealth and advancement. Over the course of two centuries we have become splintered through the modern capitalistic social model. We have become isolated. And the village has been blown apart.
But this has only been a couple hundred years! Compare that to 100,000+ years before our time...
Community is more often now a lofty ideal we strive for than a concrete reality we thrive in!
The lone hero fighting against the odds.
The nuclear family with everything they need.
Every household a self-contined unit unto itself.
These are not sustainable models — neither economically, emotionally, or spiritually.
It's OK if to you it's still about the turkey, and gratitude, (and PIE!)
For so many of us, it still is about the turkey. It’s about having our own, and enjoying what we have earned. About raising a family, coming together around what matters to us, and giving thanks for what we have.
That is all good, but it is no longer enough!
In all of our actions, we need to bring true GENEROSITY to the forefront. We must give generously, and be very clear and intentional about how we support each other.
We can and should go after the opportunities available to us. But when those opportunities are not exactly the right fit, think about those who we love who would benefit so greatly. And offer it to them. What could be just a meh for you, could be a game changer for someone else.
That's why teaching and sharing our gifts and Soul expression is so important.
Hoarding wealth and resources is the old model.
Taking those resources away forcibly to redistribute to the needy is another old companion to that model.
Being the lone self-made superhero who works alone to benefit humanity is yet another outdated model.
Suffering through life doing work that brings you no joy, because it pays the bills and there are few other opportunities...a REALLY broken-a** model.
The new model is something else entirely. It is being born as I write.
It is something the world has never seen before. (And it is at times a painful birth!)
In the new model, we work to lift ourselves up individually through awakening and honing our own unique talents. We honor and respect and even love those gifts we have been given. But we no longer do it on our own, in competition, or in micro family units.
We do it together.
We do it for our communities.
We do it because it is the highest path. And because we are committed to walk the highest path available to us — in alignment with our innermost integrity.
Because that is our highest vision, and the only way we can turn around the devastation of our planet and humankind through the changing climate, and all that brings.
So I say, enjoy your turkey. Or your tofurkey. Just as you enjoy the company of your loved ones...
But remember: You can’t pretend that everything is OK forever.
You can only pledge to align again and again with your highest principles of standing for what truly matters to you.
To take action around that.
To share the fruits of your labor with your community.
Not only your own mission or vision, but the vision of your loved ones, and the vision of your community.
And for that, you will need to open your heart really F***ing big. You will need to be a generous steward, friend, and companion.
And you can only do that when you yourself are strong and vibrant in yourself enough to really show up for you, and show up for who and what you love.
Show up, and do it. Do it for Love. For Community. For the World.
— Satya Colombo