Hello All,

Today is the U.S. Thanksgiving, a day filled with good memories of family get-togethers and a focus on gratitude. (There are also the difficult family dynamics, too, and grief for family members and friends who have been lost.) The holiday, however, is built on colonialism and genocide of what were sovereign nations prior to the arrival of Europeans.

The good parts of this holiday don’t erase the bad parts. The bad parts do not erase the good parts, but the bad parts are really horrible.

I aspire to be a peace maker. This has been a long time goal, probably since I was a small child. I was probably uncomfortable with people being unhappy and wanting to please. That temperamental trait grew and I’ve worked hard to respect the rights and value of people, including myself. It has been a long road.

There’s a strong pull for human brains to “take sides” and it is particularly strong right now. I have been participating in a meditation group, focused on reactive judgments (Transforming the Judgmental Mind), for the past 7 months. We now meet every month via Zoom. The last meeting was right after the Hamas attack on Israel. Everyone felt grief for many reasons and since many of the members are Jewish, they held grief for the people of Israel and Gaza within the context of multi-generational trauma.

Today I am grateful for the opportunity to hold space for grief, for gratitude, and the intention to take the side for peace.

Be well,

Elizabeth

We are staying in LaConner, WA for the Thanksgiving holidays. This is a haven for migratory snow geese and other birds. It is also located in the Swinomish Reservation.