The Doorway into Thanks

Hello hello!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and took some time to support your innate humanness, through walking, community, less screen time, deep sleep, and delicious food. This week I’m sharing another poem sent to me by a newsletter subscriber (shoutout to Amanda!). I think it perfectly captures the thanksgiving that is always available to us, not just over the holiday. This is “Praying” by Mary Oliver:

It doesn’t have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just

pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try

to make them elaborate, this isn’t

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.

I often read this poem at the end of yoga classes, during savasana, a period of several minutes when the practitioner sits or lays in stillness and silence. I think of that part of the class as “the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.” It is a time to pay attention to the feeling of being alive, in all of its banalities and wonders. It allows the practitioner space to sit with themselves and perhaps hear that voice within that exists beyond the boundaries of the busy brain. I invite you to sit in stillness and silence this week and consider some small stones or weeds in a vacant lot. You may be surprised what you come to witness.