A Unique Thanksgiving Event on Zoom

Dear Urban Sanctuary Friends,

We have a fun social opportunity in store this week.

Jim Thompson and Dana Bainbridge invite you to a unique Thanksgiving event.  We are adapting the weekly Wednesday night Spiritual Poetry event to be focused around a deepening of our experience of giving thanks.

St. Paul said “In everything, give thanks”.

Meister Eckhardt said “If the only prayer you ever say is “thank you”, it will be enough.”

What does it mean to not lose your “thanks” when you are surrounded by difficulties?

Bring a cup of warm cider or tea on the eve of Thanksgiving and join us as we explore this remarkable poem by W.S. Merwin which shows the persistence and durability of gratitude in our lives.

If you have time, read Merwin’s poem (see below) and do some of your own reflection, then scratch down a few lines or thoughts to share:

• people, pets, events, activities that evoke a sense of gratitude in you
• news or a story that elicit a sense of gratefulness in you
• difficult situations in which you have been surprised to discover that you – or others – have weathered with an enduring sense of gratitude

Thanks   

~W. S. Merwin

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow for the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions.

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
looking up from tables we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you
over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is.