Nothing for Granted

I feel very blessed to have had a lot of contact in the last year with Native Culture.  I also have had to fight through westernized ways of thinking and living on the earth to fully grasp what I see in Native Culture.  One of the profound lessons has been about gratitude.  I come from Swedish ancestors which as a culture, it is not big on “please and thank you”, so for me to observe at a Native event that every person who takes the stage thanks oh at least 3 other people, was at first hard for me to understand. They thank each other for things like arranging the chairs, making the food, a good speech, etc.   In short for things that white people rarely say thank you for and in a sort of class based way take for granted.  The task oriented part of me wanted to just get on with the event. However as I began to let it in, and when I reflected I realized how much more gracious, welcoming and relationship affirming this way of living is.

And this was for me the real ahah when I realized that nothing is taken for granted.   It occurred to me then that in original tribal culture if you were dependent upon nature for food and weather that supports abundance then you are both very attuned to what the weather, animals and plants around you are doing, but you also don’t take for granted that you will eat.  You are grateful for the abundance that you are part of the web of life and you understand that how you treat that will effect your future survival.   In other words, if you take it all, there will not be any to go to seed and provide for next years bounty, so you learn to live in caring relationship to that which is around you.  Also, when you are dependent upon the sensible and timely actions of the rest of your tribe for your mutual survival then again you are appreciative of the things they do that make your life better. Taking nothing for granted.

I watched a man come out of prison once after 30 years.  He could be brought to tears by being able to touch a tree or finding a pine cone on the sidewalk.  Even when someone addressed him unkindly or some snafu occurred he was still happy because he said “today was still a better day then any day in the joint.”  Little children also have this same awe at the world they find, and they also have a lot more joy than most adults.   Buddhist refer to this as “beginner’s mind” by which they mean that if we drop preconceptions, expectations and grasping behaviors we are able to be present to this moment, exactly as it is, in a way that enables much gratitude and awe and even joy.

I knew a woman that was going blind, and even as she did she invited everyone she knew to join her in what she called the “thanksgiving game” which she explained was finding as many things as we could to be grateful for.  I was thankful for the invitation but soon saw I sucked at this “game”.   Primarily because I was not thankful for obvious things.  I was not thankful for my health because it was good and it felt like it “should be”.  I was not thankful for my college degree because I got it a long time ago and worked hard to get it,   ETC ETC.  There was a lot of privilege and expectations that left me with big blind spots.   I felt in fact daunted by how I was going to learn to be better at being grateful.  

But this idea of taking nothing for granted….sort of tips that whole problem on its head. It makes very obvious how to notice what to be grateful for.