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Global Thanksgiving Prayer! 8th Annual
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Global Thanksgiving Prayer! 8th Annual
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Thanksgiving in the United States was first celebrated over 200 years ago, after America's first settlers had survived a particularly challenging year. They coordinated a feast and invited everyone in the area to participate. Pilgrims from many backgrounds as well as many Native Americans shared and gave thanks for their abundant harvest. But, ceremonies focused on giving thanks have been a part of most cultures throughout history.
The current holiday of Thanksgiving is a time for families and friends to share an abundant feast and to give thanks for their good fortune. Currently, there are no holidays which are globally celebrated. Thanksgiving is one concept that everyone can agree upon. The process of acknowledging our blessings and giving thanks to the infinite is found at the heart of virtually all spiritual teaching traditions. Let us make Thanksgiving the first global holiday!
To activate the power of Thanksgiving throughout the planet, let us all meditate, pray, concentrate, contemplate, and embrace (as our inspiration leads us) thankfulness during the 30 minutes beginning at 6pm EDT, November 27th, 2003. Give thanks for the many wonders of our planet and those within our personal lives. Give thanks for those that we love and those that love us. Give thanks for the many committed to helping the planet and its inhabitants. Give thanks for the many blessings certain to touch us in the following year!
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(We all have so many things for which to be thankful. Thank you for sharing your ideas and visions. Send email to peace@earthchannel.org)
The feeling of thankfulness is quite different from all other emotions. Gratefulness is a complex and powerful emotion that is inherently connected with the condition of faith. The word grateful comes from the latin root gratus, which is also the root word of gratis and grace.
To be thankful requires an acknowledgement of two important aspects of our lives; 1) that we have something for which to be thankful and 2) that we have someone or something to which to be thankful. We cannot have one without the other for they are indivisibly linked.
As we take stock of our good fortune and many blessings, we find that the most impressive wonders of life seem far from our conscious control... the beauty of a fall sunset, the majesty of a mountain vista at dawn, the radiant warmth of the sun on a clear, cool morn, the awesome site of a rainbow. These simple, yet amazing phenomena bless all those who take the time to notice and appreciate them. More personally, if we review most impressive blessings of our lives, virtually all of them seem to have been beyond our control... perhaps gratis or grace inspired.
Make A "Thank You" List
Some may feel that they have nothing for which to be thankful. Yet, there are
surely hundreds of wonderful blessings that have benefited everyone on the planet.
Each day is a gift... otherwise why would it be called the "present".
A useful exercise is to make a list of all the blessings and miraculous things that we have experienced during our lifetime. Begin with your earliest childhood memories. Start with the simple things... how many thousands of meals have been provided... how many nights of soothing sleep, how many sunrises and sunsets... how many rainbows... how many stunning vistas... how many star-filled nights?
List all the people that you have met or read about that have made a beneficial impression on you or have helped you in any way. Make a chronological list and try to recall least one amazing event in each year of your life. You may not remember one for each year, but you will be astonished at the number you will recall.
Include all the changes that brought about a positive result, though perhaps were difficult at the time. Include all the opportunities that seemed to fall into your lap. How many times has life provided you with just what you needed, just in the nick of time. Include your many narrow escapes from danger or harm. How many instances can you recall that, had reality's timing been just slightly different, would have surely taken you from this earth plane.
Devote at least an hour creating your Thank You list. Add to it over the next few days, as previous blessings and "miracles" come to mind. You will be amazed at the number of experiences that come to mind and the many ways that life has taken care of you. Keep this list handy and add to it as obvious blessings occur in your life.
Anytime you begin to feel that your life may be out of control, review your Thank You list. After each item, inwardly say "Thank You". Direct your thanks to your concept of the supreme. If you do not have a comfortable concept of the infinite, direct your thanks to "life" or to those to whom you are thankful. By the end of your review, you will not only experience a renewed connection to life and the infinite, but you will also feel an increased connection to another emotion that is fused with thankfulness; faith.
As we review our impressive track record of "miracles" and blessings, acknowledging their cause to be beyond our obvious control, faith that we will continue to experience blessings will naturally result. And, faith in our future is the cornerstone upon which our imminent reality is built.
Mystics and enlightened souls have long taught the importance of thanksgiving for both past and future events. While giving thanks for past events unites our hearts with the infinite, giving thanks for desired future events and circumstances charges our visions with the infinite power of faith. For how can we experience the emotion of thankfulness unless we have already (at least mentally) taken possession of the object of our vision? In order for our inner visions to create our outer reality, we must exercise pure faith to assume ownership and take possession of the object of our dreams. Giving thanks for the future experience of our visions triggers a high level of faith, the very key to realizing our dreams.
As our planet moves rapidly into a era of increasingly idealistic visions and dreams, the importance of thankfulness cannot be overstated. Let us all be thankful for our many blessings today and even more thankful for the amazing blessings we are certain to experience in the coming years. For thanks produces faith, and faith in our visions produces our tomorrows.
The EarthChannel Crew
(And, thank you for blessing our lives with your support over the last seven
years!)
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