Tag Archives: thanksgiving

The Powerful Energy of Thanksgiving

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This time of year is rich with the transformational energy of gratitude.  Therefore, I invite you to join all of us who participate in the Gratitude Experiment in making a commitment to practice proactive gratitude on a regular basis.  Searching for, focusing on, and celebrating the blessings in our lives…large and small…increases our blessings and makes for a life truly worth living   And what better time to start than today?

To support you in that effort, here are two prayers…one Native American, and the other more Judeo-Christian in perspective.  And isn’t that the combination which led to our nation’s first Thanksgiving?  Enjoy!

Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day–
and to her soil, rich, rare and sweet
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing light-changing leaf
and fine root-hairs, standing still through wind
and rain, their dance is in the flowing spiral grain
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Air, bearing the souring Swift and the silent
Owl at dawn.  Breath of our song
clear spirit breeze
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,
freedoms, and ways, who share with us their milk,
self-complete, brave, and aware
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Water; clouds, lakes, rivers, glacier,
holding or releasing, streaming through all
our bodies salty seas
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Sun; blinding pulsing light through
trunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where
bears and snakes sleep-he who wakes us-
in our minds so be it

Gratitude to the Great Sky
who holds billions of stars–and goes yet beyond that–
beyond all powers, and thoughts
and yet is within us–
Grandfather Space
The Mind is his Wife.

So be it.

Gary Snyder (after a Mohawk Prayer)

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Give us thankful hearts…in this the season of Thy Thanksgiving.  May we be thankful for health and strength, for sun and rain and peace.  Let us seize the day and the opportunity and strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities, and let us ever remember that true gratitude and appreciation shows itself neither in independence nor satisfaction, but passes the gift joyfully on in larger and better form.

W.E.B. Du Bois

The Gratitude Experiment

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Starting today…Thanksgiving Day, 2009, I am embarking on something I’m calling the Gratitude Experiment.

From today forward…and for the next 365 Days I’m am posting at least one thing for which I am grateful. It could be just one thing, or a list of things that day. The point is to focus on what is wonderful in my life and in this world.

More importantly, I want to invite everyone to post in the “comments section” at least one thing for which they are grateful that year.

Here’s the experiment part of this…I want to prove that gratitude transforms peoples lives…and ultimately, transforms the world.

The more people who do this, the more energy builds…the kind of transformational energy that transforms the world. We are transforming the world one gratitude at a time.

We want to participate in intentional gratitude, or rather “proactive gratitude.” It is active appreciation of everything around us, everything in our lives that is good, and even those things which don’t feel so good right now because every challenge in our lives has a gift hidden in it. Our part is to look for that gift and call it forth.

Intentional gratitude is an energy that multiplies our blessings and attracts more good into our lives. This fact has been proven over and over again in so many people’s lives. So let’s harness this power of gratitude by taking a few moments everyday to write down what we are grateful for. The act of writing it down and posting it for the world to see activates the law of attraction and multiplies our good quickly.

Make a commitment now, to post at least one gratitude a day here on this blog and watch your life transform.