This is the time of year that westerners – Americans, per se – celebrate the day of Thanksgiving (whose origin is a bit vague and skeptical, but moving right along…). To remember to be thankful, grateful, and appreciative of not simply what you may possess, but all things which in and of themselves are gifts/blessings in this life. I personally have experienced a Thanksgiving, or two or three that I was not sure what there was to be thankful for, given the circumstances of those times as well as my own perception of ‘gratitude’.
At this time in my life gratitude is a major factor, each and every moment of every day. To achieve this state of Being requires understanding and practice, as appreciation for anything in your life, especially in each and every moment, calls for attention and focus on the goodness of ‘what is’ your life, my life, right now. This can be a daunting task for those that are not very practiced in being appreciative for things, especially every day and during these challenging times of so much stress, chaos and challenges of all kinds, as well as the physical disasters that have left many without much at this very moment. Where can you find gratitude when you have just been stripped of everything that you own, everything that represents your security and survival? When your entire personal life ‘history’ is gone, perhaps wiped out in a flash, it is difficult to be ‘thankful’ for much. I have personally experienced this, and my own gratitude attitude was not so finely tuned then as it is now, but it was those conditions (more than one for me) that turned my world around so that today I very clearly understand what it means to truly be grateful for each and every blessing in my life, in each and every now moment.
This Thanksgiving day of 2012 holds a much more important meaning and understanding for all people on this planet, whether they celebrate the holiday or not. Because this holiday does exist, it seems that the world is aware of a day called ‘The Day of Thanks’, and the power of this day is magnified in many ways now especially in view of the many escalated negative events in our world, but also because we are on the ‘home stretch’ of a much prophesied time for our civilization. That in itself has become volumes of books and articles and blogs and movies, etc. etc., but getting to a short version that is very personal, this Day of Thanks is a very important opportunity for those that are gathering together, in small or large groups, even alone with yourself, to REALLY BE GRATFUL for the gift of life on this planet, the blessings of all of the challenges and the opportunities they provide to make us all aware that WE can choose to be better people, and that WE are here together to make this a better world. It IS up to us, together, to heal the world.
This ‘doorway of opportunity’ is ushering us right into the last stretch of this year, and right up to and through the fabled December 21, 2012. Belief systems will create the effects of any events unfolding for what this means to any individual, but for us as the current human civilization on earth at this time it is important in that we achieve a point of truly being appreciative of being alive and here AT THIS VERY TIME to experience all that is happening right now, understand it or not. We are in this together; it is up to us as a whole what we make of it. My Granny used to say, “You burn your butt, you sit on the blister.” Well we (this current civilization) have been sitting on the blisters for way too long, time to heal up and change some things! An awesome place to start is with the ‘Gratitude Attitude’, with yourself, with others, each of us and all of us.
I Am grateful for all of the many challenges that have been a major part of my life, gifting me the ability to see myself and delete some worn out ways of being and doing. I Am grateful for all of my relationships with others and all of the ups and downs and all-arounds that have gifted me appreciation for myself, and all of them. I am grateful for having been ‘booted out’ of my previous life, so that I may be living here, now, in paradise. I Am grateful for all things in my life now, they are here only because of where I have been and what I have experienced, as well as the choices that I made along the way. I Am grateful for my husband (of thirty-five years), all of our ups and downs and education in learning to live with each other, successfully. I Am grateful for all of my children and grandchildren, my family growing up and now, all of my dear friends and for all of our health. And I Am most grateful for being aware that my personal choices in life affect the whole of reality around me, and that I Do matter.
We will spend Dia de Gracias at our favorite playa de paraiso tropical, with some beloved longtime friends, toasting our awesome lives here. We possess very little, money is scarce, but we live a life of great abundance, we are very blessed.
I believe that this Thanksgiving there will be many gathered together that are experiencing similar conditions in kind, holding hands and praying together, giving thanks for being alive and sharing together, in this now. This is a doorway to a New Beginning, and for that we should be grateful. It is our right to choose this for ourselves. Choose wisely, it DOES matter. And last but not least, BE the change you would like to see in this world, be at peace – it is the way to a better world.
And so it is!
junglecuentista 