The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks

Play-doh pies 2022

Giving thanks does not come naturally for me; I do have feelings of gratitude, but I just find it hard to express them without sounding awkward or insincere - even in my head. 

Noticing my feelings is a good first step, though; when I notice how blessed I am, I become more optimistic and peaceful; my impatience decreases and I realize how satisfied and fulfilled I am. 

In the book, "Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks," Diana Butler Bass says, "The universe is a gift. Life is a gift. Air, light, soil, and water are gifts. Friendship, love, sex, and family are gifts. We live on a gifted planet. Everything we need is here, with us. We freely respond to these gifts by choosing a life of mutual care. ... There is no one experience of gratitude; rather it is a complex and episodic thing, and one that is deeply emotional."

Noticing my feelings of gratitude helps to keep me humble. I depend on the love, kindness, and support of others at all times, and on the bounty and generosity of nature. All that I have comes from others, just as I contribute to the lives of others in many ways. The exchange is continuous.

Gratitude is a fundamental feeling. When I think about gratitude as an essential part of love it becomes easier to remember to express it.

1. Read "How to Manifest"

2. Make pies

3. Daily Hours of prayer

1. Read "How to Manifest":

I'm reading a book called "How to Manifest", by Laura Chung; it's a 40 day program to "Make Your Dreams a Reality". I have one big dream that I'm making slow progress on, and this book has successfully kicked me into action!

I'm reading Week 5, called Your New State of Being. 

Day 34 - Cultivating an Abundance Mindset: "Manifesting based on abundance leads to creativity, love, reciprocal relationships, and generative opportunities that will bring you to joy." She talks about building on a solid foundation of intentions that speak about what you truly value. And she asks if you are doing the work to build a foundation for those values. If you value family, are you building bridges? If you value creativity, are you building the spaciousness that supports that?

2. Make pies:

This recipe card is very old!

Today I will start the pies! My pumpkin pie recipe-

Ingredients:

• 4 c. pumpkin
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. each ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg

Makes one large pie-

Thanksgiving preparation 2022

1- Make the pastry and line the pie plate. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

2- Put half of the pumpkin and half of the milk in the blender with one egg and blend until pureed.

3- Pour into a mixer bowl, and repeat with the second batch.

4- Add sugar, salt, and spices to the mixer bowl and mix on low, then pour into pie shell.

5- Bake at 450ºF for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 375ºF and bake for 45 minutes.

3. Daily Hours of prayers:

Chapter 4 of Grateful by Diana Butler Bass is titled Intentional Practice. The author begins by talking about making time for daily prayers of thanksgiving. 

"For more than a thousand years in Christian societies, the hours of work were interwoven with hours of prayer, forming a cycle of morning, noon, and evening rituals practiced by laity, monks, nuns, and priests. The same is true for Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists. The hallowing of the hours in a day is fundamental to a faithful life, and remembering blessings and giving thanks is a shared practice across world religions".

She talks a lot about the daily Hours or daily Office, an ancient practice that uses daily prayers to mark the times of the day. Depending on the religion it could be as many as 12 times a day, or as few as 2. I looked at the history, and it seems that the Greeks borrowed the practice from the Jewish observation of daily prayers around the time of Christ, and the Christians borrowed it from the Greeks.

These seem to be prescribed prayers; that is, you read a certain prayer from a prayer book, one for each time of the day - morning, noon, and night. Many are prayers of thanksgiving, like Psalms 95: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!"

While I'm drawn to the idea of a discipline of daily Hours, I'm pretty sure I can't pull it off, at least not with traditional prayers. My main stumbling block is not time so much as the question of who am I praying to?

So I decided to write my own prayers, praying to Divine Creation, Truth or True Nature, and the Light of Love. I've put these into my reminders with alerts, so they will pop up on my phone. When they do, I'll put my hand on my heart and stop for a moment of prayer - I tried it yesterday with great success, even with both my grandsons here or the day:

6:00 AM: True Nature, give me clarity, and focus my attention and intention today on what really matters. Amen. (Take a minute to consider what I want my attention and intention to be for the day.) 

9:00 AM: Light of Love, remind me to notice the moments of Grace that visit me today. Amen. (Remind myself of where I want my attention to be.)

12:00 noon:  I thank Divine Creation for all that is good. Amen. (Name the things I'm grateful for.)

3:00 PM: True Nature, I cannot do everything, but I can do something. Amen. (Ask, "What must I do?" Then take a first step.)

6:00 PM: Light of Love, I hold ___________ in your illuminating presence. Amen. (Close my eyes and picture someone who needs support, surrounded by the Light of Love.)

9:00 PM: Creation, thanks for the miracle of another day. Amen. (Picture the day's blessings, gifts, and small pleasures, and give thanks.)