The upcoming season of Thanksgiving is round the corner. A wonderful time to sit with family and at the dinner table enjoy turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, yams, wines, perhaps carrots and salads too. Polished off with warm pumpkin or apple pie and cream ( or even better ice cream!) makes for a rewarding 4 day weekend. What is so special about this holiday? Is it the infinite number of sales that are available at the stores? Is it the joy of sitting down with the family for dinner? It is the delight of making vast quantities of food to fill everyones tummies? I am not so sure about this last one since all I hear is complaining about the work involved in making the meal ! Or is it about giving thanks for all that we have, as our forefathers did when they first met up with native Americans and had a thanksgiving feast as the legend suggests?
Giving thanks or a simple thank you is not restricted to this season. Gratitude is one of the fundamental paths to feeling good and wholesome. Gratitude to the universe, our God, each other and to ourselves brings us in vibrational harmony with the divinity within, and allows us to connect on a simple spiritual level with the universe as a whole. If you are so busy thanking and being grateful there is no time left to be ungrateful or unappreciative of matters going on in your life that can weigh you down and sink you to a hole of negativity.
Thank God for bringing you into this world. Thank the universe for bringing you to this planet and providing this solar system in this plentiful galaxy. Thank the planet for providing the gravity that supports you. For the air that sustains you, the water and the earth provided food that nourishes you, the sun that warms you and illuminates your days and nights by brightening the moon. The beautiful seasons that are every changing. Be thankful for your house, car, neighbors, good friends, your parents, your spouse, your children, your home and its contents. Thank this body for all that it does, its well perfusing organs, the brain that controls them. The eyes that can see, the ability of sight and the wondrous things to see. The ears that can hear, the ability of hearing, and the melodious music of nature. The nose that can smell, the ability of olfaction, and the sweet aromas of foods and flowers. The tongue that can taste, the ability to taste and the delicious foods to eat. The skin to touch , the ability of pure sensation, and the infinite nice pleasant things to touch. The mind that can think, and the intelligence to know what is right and wrong.
There is an endless list of things, people, events, circumstances to be thankful for, as everything is based on attraction. The more you are in a state of gratitude the more things come to us as we sync up to the powerful vibrations of goodness all around us. It is easy to become skeptical and fall into ungrateful thoughts or expect results prematurely. But if we keep at it the results will become instantaneous. It is only the ego that in its effort to survive and prove that it is right that dissuades us from this gratitude and so hindering our true self, the true spirit from progress. Being thankful is not only very personal but it is very universal. If the universe and God started thinking in non grateful ways, we would not have gotten very far as the creative process is linked to this gratitude. Being genuinely grateful is also very healing and peaceful. A superficial "thanks" does not cut it. A simple thank you and letting go of the need for a response leaves the ego high and dry without the chance for thoughts of "he or she did not reply, so i will never thank them again" or "why should i thank them they never help me " Such thoughts will never let us move out of our ego driven lives to a more stress free purposeful life.
Look around you and you will find plenty to be grateful for, and look with in you and be thankful each day and each moment. Gratitude is a state of life not just a statement in life. To Whom or what are you going to be thankful today?
Ho! Mitakuye Oyasin.
ReplyDeleteThough I barely recall my grandparents, I carry within my heart their lessons and respect for all things. The blood that flows through this heart runs like the river to the sea. For the first time, I saw my heart beating a few weeks ago on a monitor. I lay on the table watching each valve pulse with awe and thankfulness. Every drop of blood flowing second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day and year to year. Many thanks to my heart for working so well. It is unthought of, unseen and unnoticed. Until it speaks out.. or decides it has had enough. Thank you heart.. Thanks to all my ancestors....Thanks be to all life.. It is precious.. and fleeting.. and beautiful..
Thanks for sharing your words on the page.