Happy Thanksgiving 2022
Blessings to you and yours
Happy Thanksgiving 2022
In November 1929, just one month after the famous Stock Market crash, which set in motion the Great Depression, this marvelous editorial appear in The Household Magazine, encouraging their readers to take heart and have courage as they faced the financial unknown.
I wanted to share these thoughts with you, dearest Readers, to give you a pause as you celebrate the holiday.
Thanksgiving Day was meant to be something more than a mere period of time between Wednesday and Friday of the last week in November. It may be something more than a holiday, or it may have none of the characteristics of one.
What it depends upon is the state of mind.
ThanksGIVING or thankFULNESS?
There may be a world of difference between the two. The one may be an outward, formal compliance with established custom—a polite, though meaningless acknowledgment of favors received. The other is a fire glowing in the heart—a spontaneous expression of unmixed gratitude. It knows no days or seasons and, like the song of a lark, breaks forth impulsively.
The progression of the months brings Thanksgiving Day. Your state of mind brings thankfulness. Thanksgiving Day without thankfulness is but a jangling, raucous discord. Thanksgiving Day is marked on the calendar of the months, but the spirit which hallows it and makes it a sacred, holy day, is engendered by a thankful state of mind.”
A Psalm for True Thanksgiving
by Sarah Ban Breathnach
The turkey is in the oven, filling the air with the fragrance of anticipation, and my heart is glad. The pies are cooling on the rack, overflowing with the fruits of the earth, and my heart is full. Blessed be the Giver of the gifts.
Conversation, companionship, and conviviality transform the rooms of this sacred space, and my heart is content. Thank you to those I love and those who love me. Thank you for the blessings of health, which is our true wealth. Blessed be the Giver of the gifts.
Mother of Plenty and Father of Homecoming, Divine Shields Against Want, hear our Thanksgiving prayers for those who do not sit at our table today, as we ask that they may also receive a full serving of contentment. May they also know the peace and plenty for which we pray. Blessed be the Giver of the gifts.
Show us, please, new ways to share with others the blessings of Simple Abundance: Light, space, safety, warmth, solace, and a table of goodness laid before them. Please open our eyes to new blessings surrounding each of us that we have not yet seen or acknowledged.
Come, my thankful sisters, come. Offer grace for the bounty of goodness. Raise the song of harvest home, the glass of good cheer, the heart overflowing with joy. We have much for which to be thankful. So much about which to smile, so much to share.
O beloved Holy Spirit, truly you have given us so much, an extravagance of riches. Give us, and we pray, one thing more: the gift of grateful hearts. Hearts that will not forget what You have done.
May the blessings of Peace and Plenty always be our portion.
Blessed be the Giver of the gifts.
Amen.
Dearest love to you and yours,
and Blessings on your courage,
-Sarah Ban Breathnach
November 2022
I’m thankful for you, Sarah! Diane