This is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, where I am writing this, and where Thanksgiving Day is one of the biggest family holidays of the year. But I have an idea about this holiday that is different from most Americans. I think that the holiday should be abolished.
I don't think that Thanksgiving should be a holiday at all. I think it should be a HOLY day, and placed on the calendar of all sacred days and events.
I also think we should change the way that Thanksgiving is celebrated. Forget about sitting down to a big meal and offering thanks to God for all the bounty that has been received during the past year. Instead, create a new ritual. Sit down together and thank God for all the goodness that is to come.
Do not go around the table and have each guest tell what he or she has to be thankful for. Rather, go around the table and have each guest say what they are going to be thankful for in the coming year -- and then have everyone give thanks right then and there, ahead of time. It's not too late to plan that for this year. Make your Manifestation List for the coming 12 months, then hold a little informal Thanksgiving-in-Advance ritual at dinner. For that matter, repeat the ritual every day for the next year. Sincerely believe and be grateful for receiving the gifts that you just know will shower down upon you from God's limitless bounty.
In Conversations with God the message about gratitude is clear. It is the most powerful form of prayer. Gratitude in advance, not gratitude after the fact.
This is because to thank God in advance for something is the highest form of faith. It is a statement of supreme confidence. It is the Ultimate Knowing.
When we come from this Place of Knowing, we move into an energy that creates miracles.
The most powerful prayer that I ever heard is only 17 words long:
Thank you, God,
for helping me
to understand
that this problem
has already been
solved for me.
So, while it is well and good to say "thanks" for things past, especially with other human beings to whom we owe a word of gratitude, it is extremely empowering to thank God ahead of time for all the goodness that will flow to you in the coming year. It is even more powerful to decide ahead of time what that goodness will be.
Make a list. Check it twice. Write down all that you choose to have happen between Thanksgiving 2007 and Thanksgiving 2008. Read your list out loud dinner. Encourage others to do the same. Share and Declare. There are few things more inspiring and powerful than public declaration.
Suddenly, Thanksgiving 2007 will have a new meaning. It will now be about Sharing and Declaring. It will be about Knowing and Growing. We grow into what we know.
So I think that Thanksgiving should not be a mere holiday. It should be elevated to a Holy Day. It should be the holiest day of the year. The day on which we say "thanks be to God" for all the wonder, all the abundance, and all the joys of life we anticipate and that we know in our hearts God is sending us in the coming year.
It should be the holiest day of the year because gratitude is the most sacred tool in the Creator's Toolbox. With it anything can be produced, anything can be created, anything can be experienced! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
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I wonder if perhaps someone besides me, has laid in the yard on a clear night and simply relaxed and looked up at the night sky. The stars are incredible and if you just let go, there is the momentary feeling of floating off into it all. Something about the enormity of the universe slips into my mind and it becomes more than I can begin to deal with.
If it let it go, honestly, I get a little panicky (chuckling at myself here). I finally decided that the only way I can really enjoy the beauty in that enormous sky, is to take it in smaller doses. To reach out that far trying to understand "forever" or "always has been" or even better, "God is and always has been" , all of that is more than I can do. Maybe someone out there can. For me, just taking ONE step at a time, one day, sometimes one hour, is all I can do when there is just too much to assimilate in one "bite". Perspective? Yes, I agree. This is the only way I can, with the assistance of wise teachers like Neal, make it through my sometimes tangled life without falling on my face...one step at a time.
We really and truly have within us the power to create whatever reality, whatever state of being we wish to experience and for most of us that would be Peace/Joy/Contentment/Happiness/Love.
You wonder how can I go from being sad/depressed, the lowest rung on the emotional scale, to Peaceful/Joyful, the highest when everything around me in the world and in my personal life seems to be counter to that state of happiness and contentment?
Here is how and it truly works. Quite simply and quite miraculously, YOU ARE WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE. I'll say that again because knowing this is instrumental to changing your perspective. YOU ARE WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE. It is the great "I AM. . ." statement--the single most powerful two words in the universe. If I say I am sad and depressed, then I am sad and depressed. Immediately, my body slumps. My voice is low and monotone. My energy is gone. I move slowly. The sky even looks greyer. Why? Because, I said I AM depressed. My body does what my brain tells it to do. Then when I move through the day in this sluggish state, I am busy creating more of the same in all of my day to day interactions and the universe is very amenable and aligns with me whatever thoughts I hold about the Self. The universe will begin throwing more depressing stuff at me simply because I declared I am that. Ever heard the expression, "Misery loves company?" Well, it is also true that misery breeds more misery.
Thankfully, the flipside also works. Joy breeds more joy. Happiness loves company as well. You have the power to flip the state of being that you are experiencing with a simple switch of a thought and a new declarative after that "I AM. ." statement. Rather than say, "I AM SO Depressed; the world is so depressing. . ." try "I AM HAPPY" or "I AM CONTENT" or "I AM PEACE" just for a day. Try it. It is not necessary to believe it for this to work. Just declare it. I AM CONTENT.
What does content or Joy or Peace really, truthfully, look like to you. Noone else can answer that for you. Noone else knows what truthfully makes you tick or what floats your boat. Only you do. Now do those things. Do looking at the stars at night and the magnificent moon make you happy? How about walking along the shore, digging your toes in the sand, breathing in deeply the ionic breeze, letting it absorb through every pore of your skin? Or how about just running around outside in the rain and splashing in a mud puddle? How about listening to Mozart? How about going to a museum and really looking deeply into a strange or simple or beautiful work of art? MOve close, step back, try to glimpse the truth of what someone else sees. Life is fun. Do what makes you happy. Just remember, for this to work, you don't have to actually believe you're happy at least at first. Just Do it. Get your body moving. Smile. Play. Soon, you will believe yourSelf. You will see. Simply by DOING HAPPY you will create BEING HAPPY.
I may have disagreed with Wisdum on a couple of points, but I am in total agreement with one of his greatest phrases, "Perspective is EVERYTHING." It is so true. Perspective is everything. If you don't like the state of being created by the perspective you hold about something, simply change your perspective. God gave us this enormous power. We are in control of our emotions. We can create a new reality.
Perspective creates perception, perception creates belief, belief creates experience, experience creates perspective and on and on. The cycle is extraordinarily vicious if our perspective or thought we are holding about Self is negative because a negative perspective creates a negative experience and the cycle continues snowballing on and on. The only way to break the cycle is to change your perspective or your thought.
Smile. Eat chocolate. Have fun.
Love and peace,
Michelle
Re - michelle | November 26, 2007 9:46 PM
YOU ARE WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE.
** Hi Michelle . . . I are “The Toothless Old Fool On The Hill” (the one the Beatles wrote about, many years ago . . .soon to be “The Bald Toothless Old fool On The Hill” (AKA – Wisdum)
Why? Because, I said I AM depressed.
** Geee, I’m sorry you said that
My body does what my brain tells it to do.
** Wow! I’ve been trying to do that all my Life, especially in regards to sexual intimacy (if you catch my drift !) Of course women don’t have the problems with body control as men (and I thank God everyday, I was not born a woman!)
Ever heard the expression, "Misery loves company?" Well, it is also true that misery breeds more misery.
** I guess that’s why we are ALL here. It is also true that morality breeds immorality!
Joy breeds more joy.
** Yeah! I knew this girls named Joy . . and she breeded pretty good !
try "I AM HAPPY" or "I AM CONTENT" or "I AM PEACE" just for a day.
** I do that all the Time! But they look at me funny, and either want to lock me up for being on drugs, or crazy! . . go figure !
Noone else knows what truthfully makes you tick or what floats your boat.
** Wooops! There’s that boat floating again!
Do looking at the stars at night and the magnificent moon make you happy?
** Yeah! But they think I’m a Lunatic too! Hey ! Have you noticed that sometimes the Moon looks like a big smiley-face in the sky! That really cool
How about walking along the shore, digging your toes in the sand, breathing in deeply the ionic breeze, letting it absorb through every pore of your skin?
Yeah! Reminds me of that song “The Shadow Of You Smile” (you can check that out on youtube! They block me every time I post a youtube! I can’t blame them, I would block me every chance I get !)
Or how about just running around outside in the rain and splashing in a mud puddle?
** You left out the part “Running around naked in the Rain Forest, screaming and laughing at the top of your lungs!”
How about listening to Mozart?
** Nah! I like Barry White and Barry Manilow better (now those guys write the songs1)
How about going to a museum and really looking deeply into a strange or simple or beautiful work of art?
** I prefer the Museum of Natural History, that lies right outside my door!
Life is fun.
** Yeah, I’ve alWays said that. We use all kinds of words to define God, but we never use the “F” word . . . God is Fun! (of course you have to take into account God’s sense of humor, which nobody thinks is one dam bit funny, but God . . and me!)
I may have disagreed with Wisdum
** Hey ! don’t feel bad . . . Everybody disagrees with Wisdum, especially my wife (particularly my wife!)
Perspective is everything.
** Of course there is a downside to that (there is a downside to everything!) There is some perspective that is absolutely destructive and deadly!
The cycle is extraordinarily vicious if our perspective or thought we are holding about Self is negative because a negative perspective creates a negative experience and the cycle continues snowballing on and on.
** How about our perspective about anyOne else or anything else ?
Smile. Eat chocolate. Have fun.
** Yep ! Thatsa Me !
LUV 2 U / LUV 2 ALL
Wisdum
** Nah! I like Barry White and Barry Manilow better (now those guys write the songs1)
Good Morning, Wisdum,
You left out one of my all-time favorites who I don't always admit to love in public: Neil Diamond. Now there is a singer and writer!
Love and Peace 2U, 2Us!
Michelle
Re -michelle | November 27, 2007 7:47 AM
Good Morning, Wisdum,
You left out one of my all-time favorites who I don't always admit to love in public: Neil Diamond. Now there is a singer and writer!
** You're absolutely right! One of my all-time favorites also. It's an interesting thing, we did a contemporary version of our passion play "Were You There,When ..."(as if it was happening now) and the cool thing at the end, with the risen Messiah, who I perceived as Elvis (the King) turned out to be Neil Diamond (Diamonds are forever!) It was an amazing experience, and all the Biblical metaphors became abundantly clear! (got a cast picture over at Beliefnet Community under Wisdum, and a couple of songs from the show too!)
LUV 2 U / LUV 2 ALL
Wisdum
Love and Peace 2U, 2Us!
Michelle
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