I have been thinking a lot this fall about gratitude.
Aldo Leopold’s classic book of environmental philosophy, A Sand County Almanac, contains a series of meditations on the world around him, organized month-by-month. I try to begin each new month by reading the corresponding essay – November’s entry contains “Axe-in-Hand”, a reflection on stewardship. I hope you will read it yourself: it’s brief, but it informs my thoughts about the work that I do and the life that I lead.
It begins with a walk into Leopold’s woods with the tools we have, as human beings, to manage resources with our labor: “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, but He is no longer the only one to do so. When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: he could plant a tree. And when the axe was invented, he became a taker: he could chop it down”. We choose what is to flourish and what is to be pruned away. We have a shovel to thoughtfully give, and an axe to thoughtfully take away. I am not a woodsman, but I am a cultivator of resources; I make choices, as we all do, both personally and professionally, about the allocation of those resources.
November opens for me, deliberately, with this reminder about the human power to make and enact choices, and in the United States concludes with Thanksgiving. This year more than most, I am profoundly aware of the effects of power wielded irresponsibly in the world. As an admittedly weary optimist, I find myself (as Mister Rogers advised us to do) looking for the helpers, those who can be trusted to do responsible good with any power granted to them. This has been a hard year or so in the world, but Horizons has been doing well while doing good, and I have been fortunate to find many helpers — including my dog, Triumph.
A little more than a year ago, I saw his photo and read his story on the social media outreach of Española Humane, an excellent animal welfare agency just about half an hour north of Santa Fe. My wife and I took a rare day off and drove up to meet him. I think the adoption staff were a little surprised that we were there, waiting when they opened, to meet the three-legged miracle dog with a nubbin of tail.
He had been brought in earlier that summer, having been found with four gunshot wounds. Even as the veterinary technicians were assessing his injuries, he was licking their faces enthusiastically and trying to wag with joy at meeting new friends. Because Española Humane has an amazing on-site veterinary surgical team and some excellent resources, they were able to help him; he survived, and was nursed back to a new kind of full health. When he came home with me, I named him Triumph, because he had been given what he needed to rise above dire adversity and thrive. He and I are now rarely apart; we walk together daily between home and the Horizons main office, and all over town. He is in my office now, chewing on a toy, as I write.
In November of last year, as I looked at Triumph and thought about how much had been taken away from him and how much he had been given, I was moved by weighty gratitude to make Española Humane a philanthropic priority, personally and as a business owner. Horizons has supported their “photo of the month” social media outreach for the past year — and we helped to sponsor their “FurFest: New Horizons” fundraising event in September, which raised an amazing amount of money to support their expanding operation.
These commitments joined Horizons’ ongoing support for the Albuquerque-based Native Health Initiative: “a partnership to address health inequities through loving service. Yes, LOVE is our strategy for social change and addressing injustices!” Each year, NHI hosts (and Horizons sponsors) a Gratitude Run/Walk on Thanksgiving Day. 
We love contributing to this community event focused on action and motion on a day that can be notably sedentary. And we’re grateful to be able to support their efforts to promote wellness programs for Indigenous communities across New Mexico, and to build a new generation of leadership by supporting Indigenous youth.
Early in October of this year, as it became clear that the government shutdown was likely to be long, and widespread loss of access to food resources was likely to be among the very human effects, we carefully reviewed Horizons’ budget to see how much we could spare in what remains of the year without diminishing our abilities to serve our clients, support our advisors, and keep our other commitments. 
When I called The Food Depot to offer Horizons’ support, they invited me to tour their central distribution warehouse and see how they serve as the last-resort resource to counteract hunger in nine counties of northern New Mexico. I visited their facility and learned how they do what they do. That “how” is “extremely efficiently and thoughtfully and courteously”— to donors, suppliers, volunteers, clients.
As someone who experienced food insecurity in my childhood home, I was moved by how compassionately and strategically The Food Depot serves its mission. When I heard that, because of the scale of their bulk purchasing and other superb stewardship of resources, Horizons’ monetary donation would stretch to provide ten thousand meals, I felt extraordinarily grateful to them for the opportunity.
Playing politics with hunger is not the only social disaster that’s being engineered right now. Various manipulated fears and manufactured scarcities are pressurizing American society almost beyond tolerance. Hard times can make bad situations worse, and scarcity can make people feel trapped, so escape hatches are more vital than usual. That’s why we reached out to Solace Sexual Assault Services, 
who provide a remarkable level of service to people in Santa Fe who have experienced sexual violence or child abuse. Misogyny and sexual violence are, beyond their obvious and personal intolerable affronts, corrosive to democracy — they are a kind of violence against egalitarianism. In that sense, Solace protects individuals, but it also protects the American spirit of liberty. When survivors (with help, because mutual protection is a vital component of the American ideal) preserve and liberate their individual humanity, they also hold a line preserving the foundation of our democracy. We love the work that Solace does, and what it represents; we’re grateful to be able to offer our support.
And of course, we are only able to provide this sort of support because of our clients and strategic partners — the continued trust and support of all of you makes this possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you; we are eternally grateful. We hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving with your family and friends, and a lovely holiday season!
