On Thanksgiving & Gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it’s devoted to one simple, profound act: being grateful. That alone makes it incredibly special.

But gratitude also points to something deeper, something we often lose sight of in modern life.

We’re all part of an endless stream of giving and receiving.

At the micro level, this shows up in how we rely on our families, friends, colleagues, and communities. But the stream extends far beyond us. Every day, whether or not we notice it, we are in relationship with nature, with society, and with the wider universe.

We are deeply interconnected and interdependent.

Think about all the hands that make a single Thanksgiving meal possible. Beyond the people at your table, there are farmers who grew the food, workers who harvested and packaged it, truck drivers who transported it, store clerks who sold it, and the ecosystems and living beings that made it all possible.

One meal ties us to more lives and more of nature than we probably could ever actually comprehend.

Gratitude is how we reconnect to that flow.

It’s how we remember our place within this larger stream of exchange. Not as isolated individuals, but as participants in a vast network of giving and receiving that sustains us.

When we take things for granted or act selfishly, we don’t just behave poorly; we disconnect. We cut ourselves off from the current that gives life meaning. And that disconnection corrodes us internally. It diminishes our humanity, our empathy, our capacity to see ourselves in others.

This same dynamic applies far beyond our personal lives.

Take foreign policy. If someone dedicates their career to inflicting suffering on people halfway across the world, that act doesn’t remain “over there.” Pushing pain, cruelty, or dehumanization always boomerangs back. It reshapes who we are and slowly imprints itself onto the society we inhabit. The cruelty we inflict outwardly becomes the cruelty we quietly absorb within.

By contrast, when we push for peace, dialogue, reconciliation, and human dignity abroad, we cultivate those same qualities within ourselves and within our own society. What we give is what we ultimately live.

Gratitude teaches us that none of us truly stand outside the stream.

When we are grateful, we participate in that flow of giving and receiving. A current that nourishes connection, empathy, and life itself.

But when we act without gratitude, when we take and hoard or push harm outward, we step out of that stream. And in that isolation, the harm we direct outward becomes harm we inevitably inflict on ourselves.

So today, I’m grateful for the reminder that we are woven into something much larger than ourselves. I’m grateful for the chance to choose how I contribute to that flow.

And I’m grateful for the communities—near and far, past and present—that make my life possible.

Happy Thanksgiving, and may we all stay connected to the stream that sustains us.