Thanksgiving, 2013

11/27/13

I’m grateful this Thanksgiving for this magical life. This world is utterly random; flowers and missing pets bloom in the rubble of earthquakes and tornadoes. Billions of us struggle to get by, so many live in desperate circumstances, but love abounds and joy catches us off guard.

My job affords me the great honor and blessing of being present for humanity’s resilience and vulnerability. Young people and their parents share the greatest gifts, their stories, their losses, their pain. As a social worker, I’m a witness. As a performing artist, I get to testify.

Today I’m feeling all of it - all of the losses in my life and in the lives of the people who talk with me. I miss all of the loved ones who are a state, a continent away. It’s as though the gain on the antenna has been turned way up. So much love, so much vitality, so much grief, so much strength. I’m filled with gratitude for all the feelings, all the proofs of existence that threaten to take my breath away.

If you’re reading this, I urge you to be good to yourself and your loved ones this Thanksgiving. Celebrate your imperfections - give yourselves a hug. The Mundane, the Terrible or the Magnificent might be just around the corner, but, whatever comes, it will be accompanied by Love.