Climate change: Of course it’s here. I’ve felt it coming for years, knowing so clearly since I was a teenager that our way of life was unsustainable. It’s just been a matter of when we would collectively begin to notice, what kind of vocabulary we would develop around it. Now even mainstream US politicians are starting to talk about it, so it must be real.

This year has been one of redirection and simplification for me and I can tell that there is a lot more of that to come. I’m returning to my intrinsic interests: communication, translation, healing, nourishment, music, spirituality, teaching, natural wonder. These are “home” to me, the places I go where I’m most myself and where I feel right. Like the irresistible call birds hear (or did once hear*) to migrate home, the undeniable shift in the weather is telling me to change my course, to refocus on what I was created to do. I’m flying back to myself.

It’s strange, given our daily bounty, that our culture sets aside only one day each year for expressing thanks for what we have. We should make good use of the day, then. Thanksgiving gives us a chance to reflect together on what really matters, what we actually need to sustain ourselves and our communities.

Or it should, anyway. The idea of “what really matters” has become so hackneyed that even greeting card companies and your local TV news anchors want you to keep it in mind, at least up until midnight on Thursday, when you are supposed to turn your attention to early-morning big-box parking lot survival skills and best strategies for not getting trampled on your way to the 2-for-1 deal.

Our environment is changing and we must adapt. We will not get a chance to decide whether to adapt, only how. I hope we can spend the holiday time with our friends and families noticing that collectively we’ve already been granted everything we need to take care of ourselves, we just need to find ways to use those resources wisely and compassionately. This Thursday I hope we will all reflect on the fact that almost nothing of what really matters arrives on a fossil-fueled cargo ship from China — even if you can get a good deal on it on Friday.

*http://audubonoffloridanews.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/birds-and-climate-report.pdf