Her work explores the specialness and vital importance of relationships with the animal kingdom. In the course of a too-busy day, it's easy to forget to pause for a healing moment of heartfelt thanksgiving. Nothing can bring us back to hope and harmony quicker than a moment's reflection on the abundance in our lives. When I need honest examples of what thanksgiving looks like, smells like, and feels like, I turn to my animal family. In the daily lives of animals, we can observe gratitude and thanksgiving in their purest, sometimes most startling forms.
Animals are exemplary teachers of simple appreciation.
With their expressive faces and bodies, they perform a profound and delicate dance of daily thanksgiving that we would do well to emulate. Our animal companions exhibit genuine and innocent delight at a simple sunbath, a succulent table scrap, or a human companion's return at the end of a work day. This appreciation for simple gifts, which animals so freely display, is the true heart of thanksgiving. I heard a story recently in which a parakeet taught his human partner a powerful lesson in gratitude. Bertie lived in a rather ordinary bird cage, with only a few toys, a cracked mirror, and a stick of celery or apple for a daily treat.