Have a Healthy Thanks-Giving (+ Awakening Your Spiritual Journey)

I begin with the simple things of my days:
Fresh air to breathe

Cool water to drink

The taste of food

The protection of houses and clothes

 he comforts of home.

For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day!

I bring to mind all the warmth of humankind that I have known:
My mother’s arms

The strength of my father

The playmates of my childhood
The wonderful stories brought to me from the lives of many who talked of days gone by when fairies and giants and all kinds of magic held sway;
The tears I have shed

The tears I have seen

The excitement of laughter and the twinkle in the eye with its reminder that life is good.

For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.

I finger one by one the messages of hope that awaited me at the crossroads:
The smile of approval from those who held in their hands the reins of my security;

The tightening of the grip in a single handshake when I feared the step before me in the darkness;

The whisper in my heart when the temptation was fiercest and the claims of appetite were not to be denied;

The crucial word said, the simple sentence from an open page when my decision hung in the balance.

For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.

I pass before me the mainsprings of my heritage:
The fruits of the labors of countless generations who lived before me, without whom my own life would have no meaning;

The seers who saw visions and dreamed dreams;

The prophets who sensed a truth greater than the mind could grasp and whose words could only find fulfillment in the years which they would never see;

The workers whose sweat has watered the trees, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations;
The pilgrims who set their sails for lands beyond all horizons, whose courage made paths into new worlds and far-off places;

The saviors whose blood was shed with a recklessness that only a dream could inspire and God could command.
For all this I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.

I linger over the meaning of my own life and the commitment to which I give the loyalty of my heart and mind:
The little purposes in which I have shared with my loves,

my desires,

my gifts;

The restlessness which bottoms all I do with its stark insistence that I have never done my best,

I have never reached for the highest;

The big hope that never quite deserts me,

that I and my kind will study war no more,

that love and tenderness and all the inner graces of Almighty affection will cover the life of the children of God as the waters cover the sea.

All these and more than mind can think and heart can feel,
I make as my sacrament of Thanksgiving to Thee,

Our Father, in humbleness of mind and simplicity of heart.

Dr. Howard Thurman

Akuyoe Graham, born in Ghana, West Africa, is a performing artist and an Agape licensed Practitioner and Spiritual Counselor.

As Spirit Awakening Foundation’s CEO, Akuyoe oversees the implementation of her innovative arts programs in over 12 schools and juvenile facilities for incarcerated children. Named one of the best nonprofits, Spirit Awakening Foundation has been recognized as a leader in transformational studies for systems-involved youth and is currently scaling its programs for national implementation.

The Foundation collaborates and works in partnership with the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, the LA County
Probation Department, the LA County Office of Education, the LA County Board of Supervisors, and numerous other organizations and institutions.

In 2019, Akuyoe was selected to serve a 2-year term as a member of the Office of Violence Prevention Community Partnership Council (CPC).

She is also an award-winning actor in television and film, a frequent TEDx speaker, both locally and internationally and the recipient of many awards. Some of these include: A Season for Nonviolence Local Hero Award, The Children’s Life Saving Angel of the Year Award, Artshare LA’s Artist of the Year Award, The Miriam Makeba Award, amongst many others. Akuyoe was also one of 2018’s Walden Award Honorees alongside her teacher and mentor Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith and Oprah Winfrey.