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| Play-doh pies 2022 |
The process of giving thanks is not always easy for me. I feel so awkward when I try to express my feelings.
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.
Agenda:
1. Read "Present Moment Awareness"
2. Daily Hours of prayer
3. Express my gratitude
4. Thanksgiving Tree
5. The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address
1. Read "Present Moment Awareness":
I have just need the section on limitations, learning how our beliefs distort our view of reality, and how we can shift our self-awareness and manifest a life that we enjoy more.
Now I'm starting the third section: Emotional Presence, about how to stay present to strong emotions so then can become less overpowering and we can choose our responses rather than reacting.
Emotions are present to help to us to prepare our bodies to act: Our brains assess the situation, emotions are triggered by a perception of the situation, and then we respond. Emotions are a felt thing, a physical manifestation of thought.
For example, I recently had some feelings triggered at a memorial: I was remembering my father's funeral and the complicated mourning I am still going through, and I was also feeling socially insecure and awkward in the moment. If I think back, I remember that I was tight all over, and breathing shallowly. I was wandering from person to person looking for a way to relieve my feelings, which eventually led to over-sharing when I should not have.
Our society is increasingly blind to its emotional turmoil. "Too often we cater to the demands of our emotions without first questioning their validity."
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"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 a couple of years ago with great success, even with both my grandsons here for 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.)
3. Express my gratitude:
I think I will do better at saying my heartfelt thanks if I take some time each day to consider who and why. One way to frame it is with the Universal Needs List.
For example, I want to thank Wade for his dedication and hard work on our new deck. The needs he has fulfilled for me (above the delight I have for the deck and hot tub) are faithfulness, generosity, and love. So, I want to say - "Thanks again for your diligent hard work on this deck. It means more to me that I can express - a real testament to your generous love, and reliability."
4. Thanksgiving Tree:
I've collected a basket with slips of colorful paper, pens, scissors, and tape. Each day we will choose a piece of paper and write or draw on it something we are grateful for (I'm framing it as "something we love" for the youngsters), then cut it into a leaf and tape it to a branch.
5. The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address:
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| Experimental Autumn Colors, Alan Gillespie |
This next Sunday morning after Meeting for Worship, we will recite the Haudenosaunee (pronounced who-DIN-oh-show-nee) Thanksgiving Address Greetings to the World.
The Haudenosaunee people (also known as the Iroquois) have said that the words of the Thanksgiving Address are their gift to the world and are meant to be shared.
The Address is also called the Words That Come Before All Else, because gratitude is of the highest priority; the Haudenosaunee people recite these words before nearly every social, cultural, or political event; their children recite them in school. (The address is long, but it can be shortened or tailored to the ages of the children.)
The Indigenous Values Initiative says, “Haudenosaunee tradition teaches us that peace requires gratitude. We are to be thankful for the living world. Our relationship to the Earth is the basis of our sustenance and our peacefulness. … Through these words, our minds are gathered together to share our thankfulness of what nature provides, and acknowledges the ongoing impact of these forces on human lives. The Thanksgiving Address acknowledges the people, earth, waters, plants, animals, birds, bushes, trees, winds, sun, moon, stars, as well as the unseen spiritual forces. There are a multitude of connections between human beings and other living beings in the world. The Haudenosaunee are thankful for all the gifts that we receive.”
Throughout the Address are interspersed the words, “Now our minds are one.” It’s a reply, or call back, and it is the responsibility of a receptive audience to engage in the Address by saying these words together. It connects to a cultural concept of one-mindedness, which is a form of consent: You are saying, “I’m aware of this, I hear what’s being said, and I agree to it.”
I first heard the Address when I read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer. She says, “Part of its power surely rests in the length of time it takes to send greetings and thanks to so many. The listeners reciprocate the gift of the speaker’s words with their attention, and by putting their minds into the place where gathered minds meet. … You have to concentrate; you have to give yourself to the listening.”
The Haudenosaunee people (also known as the Iroquois) have said that the words of the Thanksgiving Address are their gift to the world and are meant to be shared.
The Address is also called the Words That Come Before All Else, because gratitude is of the highest priority; the Haudenosaunee people recite these words before nearly every social, cultural, or political event; their children recite them in school. (The address is long, but it can be shortened or tailored to the ages of the children.)
The Indigenous Values Initiative says, “Haudenosaunee tradition teaches us that peace requires gratitude. We are to be thankful for the living world. Our relationship to the Earth is the basis of our sustenance and our peacefulness. … Through these words, our minds are gathered together to share our thankfulness of what nature provides, and acknowledges the ongoing impact of these forces on human lives. The Thanksgiving Address acknowledges the people, earth, waters, plants, animals, birds, bushes, trees, winds, sun, moon, stars, as well as the unseen spiritual forces. There are a multitude of connections between human beings and other living beings in the world. The Haudenosaunee are thankful for all the gifts that we receive.”
Throughout the Address are interspersed the words, “Now our minds are one.” It’s a reply, or call back, and it is the responsibility of a receptive audience to engage in the Address by saying these words together. It connects to a cultural concept of one-mindedness, which is a form of consent: You are saying, “I’m aware of this, I hear what’s being said, and I agree to it.”
I first heard the Address when I read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer. She says, “Part of its power surely rests in the length of time it takes to send greetings and thanks to so many. The listeners reciprocate the gift of the speaker’s words with their attention, and by putting their minds into the place where gathered minds meet. … You have to concentrate; you have to give yourself to the listening.”
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