Dear Holy Wisdom Community,
The Thanksgiving season gently reminds us of the important practice of gratitude. Yet gratitude can be a challenging emotion during this time in the world and during a holiday that has a complicated history.
We have much to be grateful for at Holy Wisdom. We are blessed daily by our guests, our shared mission, the prairie, the sisters and one another. As those of you who attended the Annual Meeting in October know, we have much to be thankful for – our vital and growing organization is thriving. Yet this is a time in the world in which globally we are not seeing abundance. Our earth is hurting, our people are hungry and the public discourse is full of conflict and hate – peace seems far out of reach.
Several of the coworkers attended the Sustain Dane summit earlier this month, and the keynote speaker, Arielle King, spoke of the importance of joy during this time of relentless work as environmentalists. Her message highlighted how finding joy and protecting it will sustain us in our work to serve others and care for the earth. We often witness this here at the monastery. Our guests, our Center for Clergy Renewal pastors, our retreatants all replenish and restore when they visit the monastery. Holding fast to joy and filling our cups allows us to keep serving and working. It allows us to be there for one another, and it allows us to sustain ourselves during hard times. Holding sacred space to contemplate this complex juxtaposition is one of the many gifts the monastery provides.
The Thanksgiving holiday also inherently holds lightness and darkness in its history. It is a time marked by breaking bread, being together and experiencing joy – yet it is also a time that began a treacherous history of oppression and genocide of the Native American people by colonial settlers. How to hold that complexity?
We all know that Holy Wisdom Monastery rests on land that was originally cared for by the Ho-Chunk people (you can review our Land Acknowledgement here). Those who attended a talk earlier this month, by Melanie Tallmadge Sainz, enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk nation, shared her history and life as a nonprofit director, teacher and artist. She was a gentle yet fierce presenter whose message (at least I can say) empowered me to work to do better with representation and our relationship with the Ho-Chunk. Her presentation was an inspiring reminder of Indigenous People’s strength, resilience and strong presence in our world today.
We might ask if it is appropriate to experience joy during Thanksgiving, a time that also represents the start to the pain and oppression of a people whose only crime was tenderly and wisely caring for this honored land. I imagine that task is even more challenging for those in our community who are Indigenous or a member of a Tribal Nation. How might we, alongside this painful history, also hold space for the joy and gratitude that we need for our own sustenance? I think the answer is to be intentional. We must laugh and love during this holiday, but we can also (with the same intention we put into creating joy during this time) take action to repair relationships and educate ourselves.
I will offer my family’s intentions for this season. In addition to bringing back our Gratitude Tree (a vase of branches that sits out for the next week on which my family hangs little notes of gratitude they have written) we will also be committing to view an upcoming screening of Sacred Wisdom Sacred Earth. Holy Wisdom was invited by the LOKA Initiative this week to view this incredible documentary, which is described on their website as a compelling feature-length documentary on how the efforts of Wisconsin’s Native American tribes to restore their spiritual, cultural and environmental resilience is rooted in their sacred connection to the land and waters of the Great Lakes. Being in attendance during the viewing was an honor and a privilege that I can’t wait to share with my family at the first opportunity.
I also plan to borrow, with her permission, Board member Sally Bower’s reading she shared to open Thursday’s Board meeting. She highlighted Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work in designing a beautiful Earth honoring litany that I hope my family will read before our dinner. I have included this litany below, with her permission, for anyone else who would like to consider its place in their own intentional practices.
Finally, as a show of gratitude to our recent Holy Wisdom speaker, our family will consider making a donation to Melanie Tallmadge Sainz’s nonprofit Little Eagle Arts Foundation (LEAF), to support and sustain her creative work honoring Ho-Chunk people. With these actions, I hope to experience the sustainable gifts of gratitude and joy, while still honoring our family’s responsibility to actively work to learn more about the resilience and wisdom of Indigenous People and to repair those relationships.
How will you honor joy during these complicated times? How will you challenge yourself to learn more about the history of Thanksgiving? Consider sharing your ideas by visiting the blog version of this email.
Kindly,
Erin
This Litany was drafted and shared by Sally Bowers as the introduction to the Ministries Board meeting on November 20th, 2025. Light edits have been made in order to allow the litany to be shared and adapted by the larger community.
Introduction: As we approach Thanksgiving, I am reminded of a chapter in Braiding Sweetgrass, of which we will hear excerpts from here. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes – “This Thanksgiving address is a ‘river of words’ as old as the Indigenous People themselves. This ancient order of protocol sets gratitude as the highest priority. The Thanksgiving address is a powerful political document, a social contract, a way of being – all in one piece. But first and foremost, it is the credo for a culture of gratitude.
I have asked several of you to read one of the gratitude’s and our response after each one will be: Now Our Minds are One. Let’s say this response together to begin – Now Our Minds are One
Reader #1: Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People.
RESPOND: Now Our Minds Are One
Reader #2: We are thankful to our Mother the Earth, for she gives us everything that we need for life. It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us, just as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother Earth, we send thanksgiving, love, and response.
RESPOND: Now Our Minds Are One
Reader #3: We give thanks to all of the waters of the worlds for quenching our thirst, for providing strength and nurturing life for all beings. We are grateful that the waters are still here and meeting their responsibility to the rest of creation.
RESPOND: Now Our Minds Are One
Reader #4: We are all thankful for the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds.
RESPOND: Now Our Minds Are One
Reader #5: We now turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit, and send greetings and thanks for all the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here on Mother Earth. For all the love that is still around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greeting send thanks to the Creator.
RESPOND: Now Our Minds Are One
Comments 7
As a long distance supporting “presence,” by donating a monthly amount of my income, I feel somewhat abandoned when beautiful proclamations such as Erin’s here, as a representative of Holy Wisdom Monastery, does not make any inferences to us monthly supporters. I believe monthly financial support is a important way that the vision and commitments of Holy Wiseom are being kept viable and strong.
Certiainly not a primary, or even a significant source of funding for the continuance of Holy Wisdom, but a sourse none the less. I must humbly tell you that it feels awflly lonely out here when mention is made of all the vital and magnificent contributions of the various communities of the Holy Wisdom Community: sisters’ community, guests, retreatants, ongoning program participants, sunday worship, friends of the prairie, capital campain doners, , art shows and exhibitions, library donations, and grants and gifts in kind while too oten, nary a word about ongoing monthly contributions.
As a monthly donor here in Madison, Dennis, I must say I feel no need to be mentioned. My contribution is in response to Erin’s meaningful words, to the acres of prairie that reach to the sky, to the prayers that I know come from the Sisters and for my growing faith in their presence.
Please know there are many of us monthly contributors and we are grateful for you.
As St. Paul says, “grace and peace be with you”.
Giving a monthly gift is important and just the list of good happenings is enough to know your donation is being used well which should be satisfaction enough.
Oh Dearest Dennis,
You are absolutely right! Without the love and support of our longtime contributors there is no mission. My deepest apologies for this oversight and we will do better going forward.
Kindly,
Erin
Dear Erin,
Thank you for this thoughtful reflection on the complex interplay of gratitude, joy, and historical reckoning. Your message thoughtfully confronts the painful truths of Thanksgiving’s history—particularly the profound loss and resilience of the Ho-Chunk and other Indigenous peoples—while emphasizing the necessity of cultivating and protecting joy as a sustaining force.
This perspective offers an essential reminder that our greatest battles are often internal. In a world filled with division and difficulty, the temptation to despair or exhaustion is real, yet holding fast to joy enables us to persevere, serve others, and engage meaningfully in the work of repair. It affirms that true endurance comes not from denying challenges but from intentionally creating space for both gratitude and action, allowing hope to sustain us.
Your leadership provides deep inspiration in this regard. By modeling a balance of unflinching acknowledgment of historical wounds and practical, hopeful steps—such as recommitting to practices like the Gratitude Tree and supporting voices like Melanie Tallmadge Sainz—you encourage us all to approach our shared mission with courage and resilience. Supported by this remarkable community, the Holy Wisdom Monastery exemplifies how to hold complexity without being overwhelmed by it.
Thank you for this clear reminder that joy and responsibility are interdependent. It renews my commitment to approaching these challenging times with intention, hope, and steadfast effort.
With gratitude,
Felipe Saint-Martin
I find you create a balance Erin in this article that inspires and motivates me to seek both knowledge and action! You have taken to heart what you learned from each of these events – Sustain Dane, Melanie Tallmadge Sainz presentation at the annual Friends of Wisdom Prairie meeting, viewing the premiere of Sacred Wisdom, Sacred Earth through the LOKA Initiative. Your heart then moves you to find ways and balance out what you learned by putting into action with your family community with the gratitude tree, the giving to Little Eagles Art Foundation, and reading the litany created from the indigenous Thanksgiving address.
We can hear these stories from the indigenous to whom we listen and take them to heart. Putting them into action is our way of expressing gratitude for what is given to us. Thank you for this inspiration and motivation for such a balance in our lives.
Thank you Erin for this inspiring letter to the Holy Wisdom communities! When I read it, I didn’t experience its purpose as thanking financial HW donors of any stripe…it was much deeper than that. It was a poetic piece about holding our needs (personally & as a community) in balance with the needs of the world and figuring out what caring responses of each of us may look like. Your terrific recognition of the wisdom the indigenous communities have given, and continue to give to all of us was so empowering! Sharing the personal impacts which you & co-workers experienced at the Sustain Dane Summit, the privilege of seeing the premier of ‘Sacred Wisdom Sacred Earth,’ and the powerful impact of Melanie Talmadge Sainz’s presence at the Wisdom Prairie Annual Meeting had upon you as well as all who attended that fine event was truly a gift! And Sally Bower’s prayerful litany of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writings truly put our thankfulness in words of beauty, grace and hope. Thank you Erin for your fine Thanksgiving letter!