Gathering Gratitude: What the Holiday Season Teaches Us at Slide Ranch
As the sun slips down early over the Pacific this time of year, the days take on a quiet glow that reminds me of my smallness against the Pacific Ocean’s backdrop. At Slide Ranch, the holiday season is about slowing… and noticing - how the morning fog clings to the coastal bluffs and the California sagebrush foliage appears, silver-green, as if from dead branches. And most of all, it’s about gratitude - tangible, shared, feel-it-in-your-gut gratitude.
The Ritual of Harvesting and Eating Together
At Slide, every school field trip begins the same way: in community. Students milk our goats and then spill into the garden and surrounding trails, curious and buzzing with energy, and suddenly their hands are plunged into soil, tasting sour sorrel, shaking the dirt from rainbow chard before chopping it for stir fry. The garden fills with the smells of bubbling vegetables in cast-iron pans, and the sounds of laughter as kids cook beside one another, many for the first time.
Just before we eat, our instructors pause for a moment. Everyone circles up and each student offers one thing they are grateful for in the moment:
“I’m grateful for my classmates—because we made this together.”
“To the chicken who laid this egg!”
“To the sun that grew this rainbow chard.”
“To the compost!”
“To my teacher who brought us here.”
“To the soil.”
Why This Moments Matters
The act of harvesting, cooking, and eating together is ancient. Honoring that with a pause, and shared gratitude, deepens the meal.
At Slide Ranch, we watch children rediscover that every day. They learn that food begins in living soil. That meals are communal efforts. That gratitude isn’t abstract - it’s embodied in the scent of rosemary on our fingertips and the flavor of fresh mint on our tongues.
These experiences strengthen a sense of belonging and help children build a relationship with the environment that sustains us.
Thank You
By showing and sharing your Slide Ranch love, you help ensure students from across the Bay Area can stand on Slide’s bluffs, cook meals from the garden, gather and say aloud what they are grateful for. Thank you for being a part of our story. Together, we sustain a place where gratitude grows wild.
