Thanksgiving Every Day

Today, we in America, celebrate the Holiday of Thanksgiving.

Now, in elementary school, they taught us that the Pilgrims and the Indians all sat down to one big happy meal and we are celebrating that moment and all the hardships the Pilgrims had overcome in order to be in this new land. Of course, remember that those who win the conflicts write the history books. I'm not sure that everyone was all seated at one table passing turkey & dinner rolls - especially not if the Native Americans had the slightest inkling of what was to befall them over the next 100 years... But that would be another story that would sully the purpose of this post.

Most closely related, perhaps, is the Pagan Holiday of Samhain - which was just celebrated by Pagans the world over on the day that the rest of us here know as Halloween (All Hallow's Eve). Now, at Thanksgiving, the rest of us are doing some of the things that the Pagans have already done ~ starting to look at the year just past and being grateful for those good things that came our way. (At least those of us who are not determined to make a Black Thursday ahead of Black Friday - so named because the Christmas shopping season traditionally begins the day after Thanksgiving, and it is sometimes the first sign of getting out of the red and into the black financially for many retail organizations. My understanding is that some stores will actually be holding sales TODAY for those who wish to get a jump start on the season. Oh my God. It makes me nauseous just to think about it.) The Pagans are also celebrating the harvest at this time of year - and one could say that the partaking of the bounty (Thanksgiving dinner) could be seen that way - though there are far too many people, (in this country, anyway), who have no idea about harvests or even that their meat is from animals who were killed for the purpose of their feasts. (I kid you not - I saw a Wife Swap episode that showed well-to-do people sitting to dinner with the swapped wife who was a farm wife... the entire invited party seemed appalled to know that their food was obtained in this way. What is the MATTER with people? hahaha)

Thankfulness seems to be a trite concept in today's world. They say that this current generation (the post Generation X-ers) will be known as the Entitlement Generation. Many of the kids being raised today seem to have a sense of entitlement about them - and not usually in a healthy way. I mean, we are all learning that we are most certainly entitled to certain things, even above and beyond that of which we were aware a few generations ago. But the new generation is being seen as a group who thinks they're entitled to pretty much everything, without even so much as a blink towards contribution - that they should just HAVE what they want just because they want it. In other words, they're spoiled. Rotten. To death. And this is not necessarily a good thing. Could be really bad. These same kids who are determining this sense of entitlement are not learning a great deal about thankulness. It could be said that entitlement would be just fine with the element of thankfulness being attached.

I have learned a lot about thankfulness and thanksgiving (the act, not the Holiday) in this past year. There have been great deep inner transformations in my life, and much externally, for which to give thanks to the Powers That Be. And I have learned a great deal about expressing that thankfulness in all areas of my life, at all times. The Holiday is an excuse to come together and celebrate in unison that for which we are thankful, but it is also just another day of many filled with thanks for me. I have come to practice the art of thanksgiving in my daily practice, and it has transformed the way I see the world and how events unfold for me. It is no longer something "special" that I do, it is part of my person, part of my everyday routine, part of how I interact with the energies that surround me - and it has been a practice that greatly enriches my life experience.

Now that I have embraced this practice, I find it SO strange that so many people only seem truly thankful on this particular day of the year. Worse yet, some people are getting together to be with families (a good thing), to stuff themselves with an extraordinary meal (good & bad thing!), without so much as a nod towards being a single mote of thankful (a terribly bad thing!!). For anything. Some people ONLY think of the Holiday as "Turkey Day", letting the celebration revolve around that unfortunate bird in the oven (not yet, it's only a 15 1/2 pounder - I'm getting to that in a few, here). Hey, I like my turkey as well or better than the next guy - and I love leftover stuffing, cold with cranberry sauce, for every meal until it's gone (lol), but the meal has seemingly taken over as the centerpiece of the Holiday, and I don't think that's a positive trend. Of course, not ALL people are like this (Thank God!), but there are still many.

(OK... it's almost 9:00 now, so I'd better go get that bird cleaned and stuffed and going in the oven, or our celebration will only be reading this fourm post... and I have a feeling my family might not be so thankful for that. :) - BRB).

(OK. 9:30. Bird cleaned and stuffed and in the oven. Extra stuffing in a pan in the freezer until this evening. Not too bad!)

So, back to this thankfulness thing.

This year, in particular, I am thankful for so very much on this very special Day of Thanksgiving. First and foremost, I am most thankful for the fact that my dad is home from the hospital, doing well, and able to eat Thanksgiving dinner with us all. I am thankful for those who surrounded our family with Love & Light and helped to facilitate his healing and my coping with the situation. I am thankful for skilled healers at the hospital who took such good care of him while he had to be away from home. I am thankful for a family who supported and helped me during the blur of days that he was hospitalized. I am just plain thankful for my family. :) I am thankful for my father who has always been a safe haven from the storms in the world of all sorts, my husband whom I love more today than any other day before - and it grows by the day - who is almost all the things I could want a husband to be (c'mon, NO one's PERFECT! lol), my son who makes me so proud with how he's beginning to take on the responsibilities of his own life, and my daughter who is both brilliant and beautiful. I am thankful for my sister and her bunch, being bright sparkling stars of Love in my life.

I am thankful that my niece, Donesia, is faring as well as may be expected as she battles through colon cancer. I am thankful for my own health, when recent events could have sent me over the edge into illness. I am thankful that we are all generally healthy. I am thankful that my husband's traction treatments seem to be alleviating many of the symptoms from his back injury. I am thankful for the ability to provide such a magnificent meal to my family - and an unexpected guest, my son's friend who was going to end up being alone for Thanksgiving because of his school schedule. I am thankful for a MUCH cleaner house, thanks largely in part to my husband and daughter, who went above and beyond the call of duty to help me transform a disaster into a place where I can at least feel somewhat comfortable with having a guest.

I am thankful for the friends I have made over this past year online, for the ways they have lifted me up and out of my earthly self to discover my Greater Self in a way that I never imagined possible.

And on a deeper level, I am thankful for the ways that Spirit has been communicating with me lately, all the small signposts along the Path that lead me deeper into the mystery which is my Self. I am thankful for the ways I am led to make the absolute right connections with the absolute correct people in the most absolute perfect of times for the needs of my own spiritual development. I am thankful that I have come to trust Spirit to sustain me through ALL circumstances, and how it never - EVER - lets me down. I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to be participating in the Greatest Event in Human History, and for Spirit's prompting in what I am supposed to be doing at this particular time.

And most of all, I am thankful for the peace between moments of stress and the deep, abiding joy that has come to make its home in my heart - FINALLY, after all these years of not being open enough to its abiding. It was never about not being able to FIND joy, it was all about not allowing joy to find ME.

I hope all of you are finding many things in your life for which to be thankful. Carry this forward into your days ahead. Remember to be thankful for ALL that you are afforded, and you will be amazed at how the outlook of your life changes more and more for the better as the beautiful days roll by. In the act of thankfulness, we develop appreciation, and that appreciation enhances our world with so many colors and textures and enfolds us in the warm blanket of Spirit's Love for us. Teach your children to be thankful. A thankful world is a gracious world, and it is a fine environment within which our spirits may take root, grow, and blossom into the magnificent flowers they are truly meant to be.

Happy Thanksgiving!