Recently we had the chance to attend a fall feast at a local Pueblo. Typically, ceremonies like this one are an all day affair and we were able to attend about half of it. People come from all around the valley and beyond to make a ring around the participants and offer active witness. The elders decide which prayer needs be sung for all from among many passed along from one generation to the next. You are advised in advance not to ask questions and never turn down food if it is offered. I stood in silence as the songs and dances brought in the mystery to the plaza among a throng of strangers with a special smile reserved for the littlest ones holding up their eagle feathers. One couldn’t help but reckon with the way these feasts of thanks have long proceeded the days when Pilgrims came and are still a vibrant part of cultures that don’t waste energy advertising themselves or their beliefs. I couldn’t tell if they were doing a corn dance or a snake dance to all four directions and I wasn’t going to ask. I didn’t have to. I understood the privledge it was for me to be there and held that in my own silence.
I try and live in gratitude every day, and count myself moderately successful. Sometimes I text lists to friends and other days I try to just be grateful. On this day, I wanted to take a minute to express my gratitude for you tuning into this little word pond. Not only have many of you contributed to the financial well being of this artist but the real value is in the community and the small ways many of you have shared that something I wrote touched ya or made ya laugh, etc. I look forward to continuing this thing as it evolves. You have taught me that the joy always remains in the doing and the sharing. That great enterprises and endeavors of success or trappings of entertainment fade in the simple act of sitting down to tell a little story about something.
I hope you find your true gratitude and cultivate it, and not just on this colonized day of spectacle. Gratitude is better compost with time and has fed me through many lean years. Maybe that’s what these autumn feats mean when you get down to it.
To you and for ya
this guy