Thanksgiving always reminds me of my early journey into recovery.  I was grateful, Margaret was grateful and together we moved tentatively with hope.  I remember 24 years ago telling my church family that I was hopeful and on the road of recovery.  They were hopeful and offered hugs n prayers. I look back on all that to realize that our government has once again failed to mark space for and celebrate recovery.  Now all this would be empty phrases and hollow slogans if it were not for the fact that with the support of twelve-step fellowships and peers in recovery and the launching of a new way to live at Last Door I would not be clean and we would not have made the journey across BC and AB to visit our children.

We are grateful in a Psalmist way… grateful to have grown beyond our greed (Mitchel Ps 1) and grateful as action in a Psalm 92 way (most often recorded in that conversation between Petersen and Bono and in “Salmos” ).  All this takes me back to the earlier work of Bruce Alexander delivered in a Dalhousie University lecture some five years ago, “Addiction,Environmental Crisis, and Global Capitalism”.  In a lengthy but considered lecture series he concludes that the crisis is now, “more fully recognized as environmental and psychological as well as political.”  We pray for all those who are struggling to recover recognizing that detachment or separation from community are central themes in recovery.  We also hope that in these covid times people will struggle to build connection, build community and celebrate recovery.

The convergence of recovery, family, faith and science has led us to live grateful lives.  Join us this Thanksgiving Day in acts of gratitude that reach beyond our individual need — acts that bless the whole community.