"Our Nation's Heart" Says: What Would Love Do

Today's Spark comes from our Nation's Heart. Click here to listen to this Thanksgiving Blessing created for you and our post-election reality.

This Thanksgiving, I'll be sitting around a table big enough for democrats and republicans, trump supporters and protestors, to come together. I'll be holding my Dad's hand, a man I have always admired and loved. One of us voted for Hillary. One of us voted for Trump. I'll be sharing this Blessing. And I offer it to you now. It emerges from my own simmering in our post-election reality. But mostly, I believe it is a blessing that comes to us from our Nation's Heart.

"Our Nation's Heart"
A Thanksgiving Blessing
By Jessica Chilton

~Click here to Listen~

Now more than ever
We need to hold hands.
We need to feel the humanness, the warmth, the skin.
Especially the hands of another who is somehow against--
Against what we believe,
Against us,
Against them,
Against the small,
Against a wall,
Against the fall,
Against it all.

In our DNA, it is true,
We are more alike than different.
But the skin, the spin
We're living in,
Can story us apart.
So now more than ever
We need heart.
Heart that listens
Heart of compassion
Heart that loves
Heart of action.

How can we make more space at our table?
How can we open our door wider?
How can we look inside her and him and us and them
And find a We that is inclusive of everyone and everything?

How can we feed each other Love?
Offering Love
To those we don't like.
Offering Love
To those we look down on.
Offering Love
To those who make us uncomfortable.
Offering Love
To those who trigger us
Into anger and tears.
Offering Love
To those who go backward to our forward.
Offering Love
To those who are most scared
Of what we might offer instead.

Do not shut down your heart to anyone
In protest or detest. In fear or unrest.
Heal the bully in all of us.
Grow our common roots
Deeper into human rights.
Dream into the darkness.
Be the sun rising from the night.

May we be reminded,
On this day of gratitude,
Of our capacity
To let Love lead us beyond fear.
What would Love do?
How have you Loved today?

If you are going to fight for something-
Let it be for Love.
And may All win.

Now more than ever,
May we unconditionally welcome
One and all
To come together
For a thanksgiving harvest
Of Love
From our Nation's Heart.