A Thanksgiving That Rises From What’s Working
Thanksgiving lands differently this year…
After everything this land has seen…after everything we have seen…there’s a steadiness here that feels almost ancient…like something that’s been quietly holding us long before the storms came and long before we knew we would be the ones to hold this place in return…
And when I look around at the horses…the dogs…the goats…the people who find their way here…I can feel the same truth pulsing through every story…
When what’s working has the power, the rest…falls away…
This year I keep coming back to that…What’s Working. Not as a slogan…not as a positive spin…but as the compass that keeps pointing us toward who we really are…because when everything breaks apart, you learn very quickly which pieces are worth carrying forward…And what’s worth protecting with your whole heart.
When Hurricane Helene ripped through our mountains it felt like the world was being rewritten in front of our eyes…bridges gone…driveways carved out by water…hay lost…whole communities stunned into silence…and yet, even in the hardest moments, something deeper kept rising…
Neighbors checking on neighbors…
Strangers passing food through car windows…
Volunteers hauling supplies into places no one else could reach…
Horses standing shoulder to shoulder, reminding us that connection is always the safer path, even when fear says otherwise…
That’s what’s working...
That’s who we are...
Not the damage…not the headlines…not the exhaustion that settles into your bones after months of rebuilding…What’s working lives in the choices we made after the storm…in the way we refuse to shrink…in the way we keep leaning in even when it would be so much easier to lean out…
And here at the sanctuary, leaning in is our daily practice.
Every morning when I step into the pasture, I’m reminded of the quiet courage it takes to heal…
Sunny, once shut down, now playing tricks and stealing farrier tools like he’s running his own comedy show…
Becca watching every move, deciding slowly, quietly, whether she can let her guard down just a tiny bit more…
Petie hiding in the corner, carrying a lifetime of stories no one should have to carry, and still…still…choosing to stay close enough to listen…
These horses teach Thanksgiving better than any holiday tradition ever could…
Because gratitude isn’t about what you have…
It’s about what you choose to honor…
It’s about noticing the small things that keep you alive when the world feels unsteady…
A soft muzzle…
A shared meal…
A donated bale of hay arriving right when you’re down to nothing…
Bringing a neighbor feed you can barely spare because you have faith that more will turn up when you truly need it…
A quiet afternoon when the herd is calm and breathing in sync and you remember why you started all of this in the first place…
That’s Thanksgiving...
And so, this year, we’re celebrating something deeper than survival…
We’re celebrating identity…
The identity of a sanctuary that refuses to give up…
The identity of a community that keeps showing up even when the odds are against them…
The identity of a little herd that holds centuries of wisdom in their bodies and still chooses connection over fear…again and again…
We’re celebrating the values that guide us every single day…service…integrity…compassion that doesn’t collapse into fixing…courage that doesn’t need accolades…a relentless commitment to creating a place where horses and humans are both allowed to become who they were meant to be…
We’re celebrating the people who stand with us…volunteers…neighbors…farmers…CDRO partners…friends who become family the moment they show up with their sleeves rolled up and their hearts wide open…
We’re celebrating what’s working...
And we’re proud of it...
Not the loud kind of pride…not the performative kind…But the kind that grows out of aligned action…the kind that strengthens your spine…the kind that lets you look at the hardest year of your life and say…
We didn’t just survive it…
We became more because of it...
So this Thanksgiving, from every inch of the land we stand on…from every heartbeat in our little family…
THANK YOU!
Thank you for walking this wild, sacred, unpredictable path with us…
Thank you for believing in what we’re building…
Thank you for helping us build it…
And thank you for seeing the sanctuary not just as a place…but as a way of living…a way of leading…a way of remembering who we are when the world shakes and everything falls apart…
Here’s to what’s working…
Here’s to who we’re becoming…
And here’s to the quiet, unshakable knowing that we’re just getting started…
Happy Thanksgiving…from all of us at Missed Path Sanctuary…where every story gets a second beginning…and every beginning starts with hope…
