This week, as people in the United States gather for Thanksgiving, many are wondering if there’s anything worth being thankful for. It feels like the world is unraveling. Everywhere, there seems to be division, insults, and grown-ups forgetting how to behave with civility. In times like these, gratitude can seem impossible.
But this is exactly when gratitude is most important.
I believe we are all on our own Hero’s Journey, writing our personal stories as we go: will we rise above despair? Will we choose kindness, even when it’s hard? Will we be the heroes of our own lives, of our families, of our communities, amid the noise and chaos?
I have used this image several times in past newsletters. It reminds me of why we are here--to learn how to love.
Gratitude is a transformative force. It's like a light that cuts through darkness, dispelling despair with laser focus. In the face of division and uncertainty, gratitude strengthens us. It opens the heart, keeps the mind curious, and helps us see the good amidst the bad.
It also reminds us that often the very things that we initially label as “bad” turn out to hold incredible blessings. I have learned this, over and over again, as events that I labeled as “bad” happened. Like losing full custody of my daughter after the breakdown of my first marriage and being unable to move back home to Seattle. Sharing custody forced me to stay in Ontario, where I eventually met the love of my life, Nav, the kindest man I have ever known, and had a beautiful daughter with him. The joy I have now was planted in the soil of grief when I thought I had lost everything.
Or when my beloved young adult novel, The Great & the Small, published by a fledgeling indie publisher in 2017, was released into the world… to the sound of crickets. I spent 2018 wondering if I should give up, dubbing that year “The Great Scouring.” Eventually, freshly “scoured” of ego-driven motivations, I decided to continue, but to “do it for love.” It was a painful but needed realignment of my joy of writing/illustrating, with my values.
In 2022, that same publisher, Common Deer Press, now experienced and with greater resources, gave me the chance of a lifetime to revise the book. I released the second edition in September. Recently, the CBC chose it as one of the best young adult books in Canada. It was also selected for a second list of the best children’s and YA books for Halloween. Last week, I found out it made the quarterfinals in the Script2Comic book awards.
We all have stories like that—stories of rising out of the ashes, finding new ways, new joys in life, even as old dreams fall away. That’s life. That’s the Hero’s Journey. Gratitude keeps us open to finding those gifts that only trials and troubles can bring us.
For my American friends and family, and for all of us, I wish us the joy of gratitude.
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