This Is What Saves You
A poem
Do not survive
by merely eating of each day,
a moving of sustenance
from fork to mouth,
but give thanks—
this is what saves you
from despair.
I get it. Telling someone to give thanks can often be the equivalent of telling someone to stop being anxious. Or it can feel like self-gaslighting— “I’m supposed to be thankful for this *gestures at shitty situation*?!?” So please don’t take this poem as that.
The truth is, I mostly wrote this for myself. Having been to the dark pit and back, I’ve found that gratitude is my only alternative to numbness and despair.
Maybe you don’t even know who to be grateful to today or why *gestures at shitty situation that is the world these days*. I get it.
If you can, maybe find a quiet moment to yourself. Maybe stare at the last autumn leaves clinging to a tree, and, in that moment, just breathe out a thank you into the world.
It won’t cure everything or maybe much of anything. But it might make you feel a little lighter.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.