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