When we give thanks, let us be mindful of the health and well-being of the ENTIRE web of life of which we are a part.

During Thanksgiving, we express gratefulness for the blessings that we and our family - and perhaps our nation - have received over the previous year.  However, limiting thanks to the well-being of just our own immediate sphere is like being grateful for just one color of the rainbow, to the exclusion of all the others. When we give thanks, I suggest that we think of ALL of the creatures, landscapes, peoples and genders - all of the  colors of the rainbow - that make up the web of life on which our lives depend.  For unless all of these different parts of the rainbow / web are healthy, none of us will be.  In Buddhism, this truth is expressed in the image of the Net of Indra, where each creature is viewed as a jewel tied to a node within that interlocking web.  Here, each jewel - each creature - contains a mirror that reflects all of the other jewels.  Thus, every jewel is an integral part of every other jewel. In Christianity, St. Paul calls this network of beings the Body of Christ, and compares each person and ethnic group to a different part of that universal body. He reminds his readers that the hand, for example, cannot tell the eye it doesn't need its services, and vice versa.

This time of year, it is especially important to remember the Native American and First Nations peoples  who lived in this land long before Europeans arrived.  The first Puritan Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, during a three-day feast. Whether it was the first official Thanksgiving Day is a matter of debate. But we might pay special attention to the Thanksgiving Feast of 1637, when the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony celebrated the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children who had gathered for the annual Green Corn Dance ceremony.  Mercenaries of the English and Dutch had attacked and surrounded the village, burning down everything and shooting whomever tried to escape. The next day,  the Governor of the Colony declared “a day of Thanksgiving, thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children.”

Obviously, when our families gather for a celebration this Thanksgiving Day, we are not sanctioning such massacres.  In fact, many of us barely even think of the Puritans or of their Thanksgiving celebrations.  But it is important for us to remain mindful of the fact that Native Americans and First Nations peoples may not feel the same way we do about this holiday.  Therefore, as we celebrate, let us give special consideration to the well-being of the indigenous tribes whose Earth-based wisdom will be needed if ANY of us are to survive the challenges of living in an industrial society.  This holiday, let us therefore remember the ENTIRE web of life, and work to ensure the health of all nations, peoples, genders, landscapes and species.

Photo: Sunset layers, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012