I just returned from a vacation to see family on the East Coast and finished the book I was reading on the plane. I looked in my ebook library for something else to occupy me and the first title that popped up was Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. When I first read this book in 2013 it shook my world view to the core. EVERYTHING she wrote about was filled with deep truths from a blend of her expertise as a botanist, her ancestry as an indigenous person and motherhood.

I've reread parts of the books many times so when I opened the book it was already well into the story on the chapter titled "Allegiance to Gratitude" which tells a tale of one of her daughters refusing to say the pledge of allegiance at school and how differently the Haudenosaunee people find "allegiance" though shared gratitude. It struck me as I reread that chapter how Gratitude & Abundance are two sides to the same coin.

Modern Witches has been focusing this month on Abundance which is perfect for this time of year as we are in big harvest energy. There is lots of sunshine ( most places) and all the fruits and veggies are at their prime. We are also in a harvest cycle as people, some good, some harmful, (based on many of our many of our global situations). Things that were planted earlier are coming to fruition and we are preparing for the turning inward that will come with Fall & Winter.

So here I was plopped smack into this chapter about gratitude that was structured around the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address: Greetings and Thanks to the Natural World, which you can find here: https://americanindian.si.edu/environment/pdf/01_02_Thanksgiving_Address.pdf

You will see it is really a list of all our more than human kin who we share the world with. It names each one and aligns us in our gratitude for the gifts each gives us. It was so obvious as I read through how much I have to be grateful for and how much abundance is available to me.

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Cultivating abundance for me has been all about cultivating gratitude and I don't mean this in a "good vibes only" spiritual bypass kind of way. Being grateful doesn't mean everything is fine and you don't have any needs. But it seems to shift the narrative for me and has helped infinitely with my anxiety and scarcity mentality, especially over the last couple of years.

This quote from the book really takes the practice of gratitude in creating abundance to its fullest expression. I can't say enough about the wisdom and gifts of Braiding Sweetgrass. Get a copy and read it!

Prompts for Exploring Abundance through Gratitude ~

What projects or areas of your life are you working to create abundance in?
Choose one of those items and list all the things that you are grateful for in those areas or projects. Writing until you cannot find another thing to list.
Can you use this list to create your own Thanksgiving Address?
See if you can craft an intention for the next Moon cycle to shift your filter to creating Abundance through Gratitude.