In the campfire gatherings, wisdom is passed on by elders. They pass on stories that embody an understanding of the world that endured long before our feet touched this earth. In many of these stories, there is an understanding that life is a gift. Life is something to be thankful for. To be thankful is to be grateful for what we have received. Every good thing we have received is a gift from a power greater than us.
In these traditional stories of generosity and thankfulness, there is also a dark side. There are dark characters who refuse to live in the way of gratitude. They live only to advantage themselves. These people have been seduced by the evil Wendigo, a creature that weighs victims down with an insatiable appetite for greed, hunger, and the craving to devour other human beings. The Wendigo is never satisfied and is continuously cannibalizing, searching for more victims to exploit for their own destruction. The way of the Wendigo leads to a life reeking with the stench of death.
Resisting Wendigo leads to a life of thankfulness. Thankfulness nurtures life, and life flourishes under thankfulness. Thankfulness flows and feeds into other life. As we grow in gratitude, we grasp Mother Teresa’s profound insight, ‘A life not lived for others is not a life.’
Through gratitude, our life becomes a gift that nurtures more life. Deploying our gratitude, we impart the precious beauty of new life---life breaking forth, flourishing. Through gratitude, choose to live for the flourishing of others. Live to feed life. Live by the prodigious power of gratitude that translates service into joy.
