In two weeks, we celebrate Thanksgiving, and this is a good time to reflect on the holiday as well as the seventh step of the Seven Steps of Effective Prayer: Thank you, God, for everything, for everyone, and for me. The Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. is most frequently traced to a celebration in 1621 at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. Pilgrims who began emigrating from England in the 1620s had brought with them the tradition of Days of Thanksgiving. At the Thanksgiving event in 1621, they were celebrating a good harvest. This was not an insignificant matter. Fewer than half of those who had sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 had survived the first year. There were diseases, the rocky land in New England was not ideal for farming; and the winters were cold and harsh. In the midst of this hardship and loss, the Pilgrims gave thanks. It may be helpful to remember that as we contemplate our own blessings and challenges. At family gatherings on Thanksgiving, we typically name things for which we are thankful - family, health, good fortune. But the seventh step of the Seven Steps to Effective Prayer takes thanksgiving to another level: We give thanks for everything. Whether we perceive things as being favorable or unfavorable, we give thanks for them. This can be hard to do. But it certainly reflects an elevated state of consciousness. In the highest state, we know everything is Divine. There is nothing positive to accept and nothing negative to reject. There is no judgment. There is only That. That which is immutable. That which has always been. Infinite spaciousness, blissful existence, luminous Being. Let us give thanks for That: Thank you, God, for Thee. Thank you, God, for the Light. Thank you, God, for the Light in everyone and everything. Thank you, God, for Thy energies of Love, Peace, and Joy. Thank you, God, for these Divine energies filling my being. Thank you, God, for letting me feel and know and express these Divine energies. Thank you, God, for the joy of living. Love and Light, Tully
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 16:43:16 +0000
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