In Gratitude

 Boston Marrow Squash--great for pie!

The world wide web is a flurry of Thanksgiving articles and blog posts.  I have added my own to the throng with a healthy, local food themed piece on Get Active Today’s website, replete with recipes made with ingredients sourced at the winter farmer’s market.

This year, I’ve noted that the many people harping on the gluttony and over consumption that can often be involved in American holidays has ratcheted up a notch; some have gone so far as to boycott Thanksgiving.  That seems a shame.  I like to think that this is one holiday where we can truly, easily, observe and celebrate our eternal connection to the land.  To give thanks for the many things that make the act of eating together possible is something I feel we should do more often.   So while many feel this holiday has gone too far (and really, its easy to agree when you consider the average Thanksgiving meal holds more than double our daily calorie needs) I think the answer is not to banish it, but to bring it back down to its earthly origin.

While Thanksgiving is an American holiday (and though we get the origin story of the original Thanksgiving wrong over and over again) giving thanks for a good harvest is something all cultures have done for the millennia. More generally speaking, gratitude is something that all cultures, all religions express, and nowadays science has shown us that gratitude is associated with well-being.

So in this spirit of gratitude I reflect on what I am thankful for this year:  I’m thankful for the birds and the bees and all the pollinators of our fruit trees and plants, the farmers who’ve worked on bent knee and with sore backs to cultivate food from the soil for my table, the little garden that could still flush with herbs in my yard, the great diversity of lifeforms around the globe, the clean water that flows out of my tap from the fresh water reservoir that is Lake Michigan, and for the people I love both near and far that nourish my soul...