I Am Thanksgiving

Much of the time the word “thanksgiving’ conjures up images of a special day in November that’s celebrated as an American National Holiday. It’s that special day when families and friends awaken to the spirit of gratitude, the essence of Thanksgiving.The hope, conscious and unconscious, is that this gathering will provide a new containment field for the heart to open and affirm what really matters. What a gift when it’s realized.

Thanksgiving is an action word. It’s a current of energy that can be accessed within ourselves and others to be spent without fear. It’s an attitude of gratitude where nothing is taken for granted and everything is appreciated. It’s a move to enhance and advance the best in ourselves and others. If this is all true, I wonder why we reserve it for one day rather than living in it all the time. Is it that we simply forget in our busy lives?

As a student, I learned that when a significant historical event is held up for all to see and attend to, it’s really important because it happens all the time not just once. As we hold up Thanksgiving Day we point to the underlying current of power inherent in the act of thankfulness, giving and receiving. It’s a powerful, universal, and life changing energy that’s always and everywhere inspiring higher states of wisdom and well-being.

Have you ever noticed the shift in energy within yourself and others when you move from depreciating thoughts, words, and actions to appreciating ones? Could it be that thoughts actually create life changing weakness and strength within you? Could it be that the thought creations of thanksgiving and appreciation attract and enhance new streams of energy for you as sender and receiver? The research says “Yes.”

I read something awhile back that caused a pause in my understanding. It said that ‘Calmness is the Cradle of Power.’ As someone who was programmed to be a driver and striver I was caught in a paradox. I’d never put calmness, cradling, and power together. It took some serious reflection to find the interconnectivity. I remembered the times I’d cradled my wife, our children, our grandchild, my dying father, and myself.

In a deep meditative moment of cradling I slowly awakened to the power of calmness and thanksgiving. I was able to discover delight in the interconnectivity of everything as well as release my resistance and insecurity. I began optimizing the opportunities and processing the possibilities in ways that appreciated everything. It gave me insight to see the transformative energy of thanksgiving and realize I could consciously live in it.

Eventually, in that space where nothing is taken for granted and everything is appreciated, a new awareness came that helped me see that to live in this thanksgiving energy was to be it. I’m now working on the awareness that you and I are thanksgiving.

Join me in saying the following mantra a couple hundred times a day for the next thirty days and see what happens.It works especially well five minutes before and after sleep.