Aho (Thanksgiving Eve 2023)

when trying to imagine

an honest way

to celebrate this Day

of giving Thanks

as a coming together

at one Table

of different People

with different stories

(or different versions

of the same story

that for some

has become

a fantastical fable)

surrendering their convictions

and not nursing

their afflictions

while remembering that 

the oppression experienced 

by my forebears

in their Homeland

as beyond the pale

still pales in comparison

to the devastation

and discrimination endured

by those already here

in their Homeland

(at the hands

of my forebears)

and yet amidst

the glares of contempt

somehow there were flares

of Light sparking

embers of reflection

upon our Innate

and Sacred Connection

explorers (who were

sometimes exploiters)

seeking deeper Wisdom

from the Excluded

settlers acting upon

what they believed

was their God-given 

(yet deluded) right

in taking the Land

now Gifting the Land

back to those

who recognize

that their sweat 

and tears and blood 

emerge from It

and return to It

and are made of It

who realize

that the clearest

most authentic sight

comes as a Surprise

more from our hearts

than through our eyes

then perhaps the ways

we can only envision

the divisions throughout

our world and lives

as smoke signals

of darkening and daunting

and ominous Skies

are actually a smokescreen

an incendiary haze

hindering our ability

to perceive with clarity

what is happening

in the deepest Parts

of our Psyches

and Somas and Spirits

and the Sordid

Sacred Soil Itself

maybe the idealized portrait

of Indigenous and Indignant

together at one Table

is less a pipe dream 

floating in from afar

and more a silkscreen

(saturated in smoke

from a Peace Pipe)

flowing through from within

depicting an honest Vision

of Who and Whose

We really are

One People connected

in One Love

on One Land

(that no one owns

and from which

We all emerge

and to which

We all return

and of which

We are all made)

who have no reason

to be afraid

and every reason

to be in Love

since That 

is ultimately

the Sacred Stuff

of which We

all are made...

May It Be So

(in every Season)...

Aho.

('Aho' is a word used in multiple Indigenous communities, most notably in Cherokee meaning 'Amen' and Kiota meaning 'Thank You'...which also happen to be the two ways i most regularly end prayers.)

#360wordprayers #HappyThanksgiving2023 #MayTheBelovedCommunityWeAreMoreFullyEmergeFromWhatIs

('Rainbow Dance' © Yoram Raanan, Beit Me'ir, Israel)