Thanksgiving

My life is like a flower, opening to the sun.
My life is like a fountain, spilling up from the deep.
Peace, I am discovering, is not a state of being, but a process of becoming.

–Ann Kreilkamp in SageWoman, 54, Summer 2001 (p. 50)

I have a special affinity for interfaith prayers and readings that strike the chord of the sacred within us all, without being identified with any particular belief structure, or, indeed, belief in anything outside of the natural world. So, I liked this Thanksgiving blessing from Starhawk:

“We give thanks for this good green earth and all that lives upon it.

Thanks for the air, the Great Breath that flows from leaf to lung and back again, sustaining life.

Thanks for fire, leaping flame and glowing hearth, warmth in the cold season.

Thanks for water, the life-renewing rain, the springs, streams, and rivers, the pools and lakes, the great oceans, womb of the first life….”

–Starhawk, A Pagan Thanksgiving blessing (that anyone can use)

I also really enjoyed this article by Shiloh Sophia, Ten Ideas for a Grateful Thanksgiving Day. The ideas are wonderful and I wish I’d read the article before yesterday so that I could more readily incorporate some of them into our family dinner today!