It’s the week of Thanksgiving, and the interns have all headed for the hills to enjoy some much needed and well-deserved restorative time with their friends and families. Hopefully they will be able to replenish their Kidney stores over these next few days.

So, the general hum of purpose and activity inherent in intern classes has ceased. Administration is quiet, too, as we try to catch up on projects that were pushed aside to help with more immediate concerns. And soon, we’ll be on our way towards our own Thanksgiving restoratives.

In the lull of this week, I wanted to leave a short rumination on Thanksgiving, but as I began to write, I realized I couldn’t summarize the various kinds of holidays people will be sharing this week. Not everyone has family to go to. Not everyone likes turkey and mashed potatoes (and the general over-consumption of rich foods over the course of the day tends to fly in the face of what our students learn about dietary therapy). And as we hear more often at this time of year, food and warmth are in short supply for many.

So, I invite you to take a moment and embrace the humility of moments like these- where we have the opportunity to think about what is around us and what others are doing. And I’m going to let Rumi, that mystic master of eloquence, send a message of thankfulness to the universe.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

What Was Told, That

By Jalal al-din Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

 
What was said to the rose that made it open was said
to me here in my chest.
 
What was told the cypress that made it strong
and straight, what was
 
whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made
sugarcane sweet, whatever
 
was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them
 
so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is
 
being said to me now. I blush. Whatever put eloquence in
language, that’s happening here.
 
The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,
 
in love with the one to whom every that belongs!
 

Copies of this poem can be found at www.poetry.org