Thanksgiving amid tumult and COVID-19

Damos Gracias. Once again we are in the season of the year when the people reflect upon the events of the past year and of our lives, and give thanks for the blessings and the graces that have been received, including here in El Norte the fruits of the harvest and our special heritage and values.

Here are cultural values which have been passed on and learned from the strong ancestors, the grandparents; values which are both tangible like the physical work with lands and waters, and the intangible values of the spiritual realms.

Over the past several hundred and thousands of years there has been built up great wisdom and knowledge here; and the skill of persevering through tremendous hardship and adversity in our area and throughout the world, such as geopolitical wars and scheming, and the ongoing lethal grip of the COVID-19 viral pandemic, which has affected and afflicted us here and everywhere.

The cultural values in El Norte include and contain the historical experience of multitudes and many generations of peoples both indigenous to this hemisphere and from across the world, and including by now nearly every spiritual way, tradition and religion, affirming a global recognition that there is “something” out there, perhaps divine, some Great Spirit or Holy Spirit that invisibly moves through and sustains everything that the people see and know and work with.

Here in El Norte, the people have always enhanced the workday life and necessary existential toil with prayer based on faith in that unseen highest power that is understood to emanate from the spiritual realms. There has always been a confidence in the future, even if in the present moment and time there may be a scarcity or very harsh difficulty.

Through many centuries the calendar of seasons of land and water, of the planting and of the tending and of the harvest has always continued; and when the harvest of the year has been reaped there is a shared sufficiency of sustenance and the people give thanks for these fruits that are the result of their hard and faithful work in combination with the forces of nature and the forces of the supernatural.

In this year of 2021, it continues. Even though there have been great changes in the economy and not as many as before work directly in the traditional cycles with the lands and waters, and although the cultures of El Norte have been subsumed to some extent into the global and corporate schematic, there is a strong, undying dedication and intent that these values will never be allowed to pass away. There is evidence of a resurgence of these ways now, in the face of growing economic uncertainty and the general tumult and unrest that are now more pronounced throughout the world and in this nation.

These values are important, in fact vital to many, as wise and valuable guideposts to the development of character and strength in the individuals and peoples who have had the good fortune and opportunity to be born into and to live and to work in that way.

Indigenous and local families were fully engaged in the planting, the tending, and harvesting of the products of the lands and waters here by dint of hard work by their own hands, and the provisions from the earth and lands, and the game from the life-giving mountains and forests that ring the fertile valleys of El Norte; and at harvest time at year’s end were all moved to give thanks to the Most High that is the source and origin of “all good things.”

We offer this blessing prayer: “All-powerful, the Most High, we appeal to your care that just as you temper the winds and rains to nurture the fruits of the earth you will also send down upon us the fullness of your blessing. Fill the hearts of all the people with gratitude, that from the earth’s fertility all may be fed and filled with good things and fortified against all dangers and afflictions. May your goodness be shared by all, in peace and good health and healing. Así sea!”

Dedicated to all our people gone before us, i.e., from the timeless and limitless lines of our families’ ancestries of blood and of spirit, who have brought us to this point in the continuum of existence — The Blessing Way.