We are grateful for children
teaching us that gentleness, care,
play, and imagination are our birthrights.
We are grateful for elders—
human, flora, & fauna—
who hold stories of our belonging.
We are grateful for the wisdom of the land
who shows us there is enough for all
when we take only what we need.
We are grateful for those who mend, lend, and collaborate
their way into abundant living—
teaching us the richness of divesting from corporate greed.
We are grateful for dreamers—
Singing, dancing, and planting forth
the world to come.
We are grateful for organizers
whose strategies and historic memories
shake loose chains of violation.
We are grateful for the courageous
whose solidarity has teeth,
whose compassion risks something.
We are grateful for comrades
who throw sand in the cogs
of the machine of oppression.
We are grateful for
Truth Tellers, Truth Yellers,
Way Makers, Pattern Breakers.
Our gratitude is not a flippant thing,
it does not gloss over violence,
it does not forget about grief—
it holds in its trembling hands
the preciousness of living,
feels the weight of all that has been lost,
draws us to a deeper connection
with all that could be,
blooms us into better ways of being.
rev. molly bolton
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