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Can
you see the holiness in those things you take for granted--a paved road
or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in
every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be
filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.
Rabbi Harold
Kushner
Let
us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least
we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't
get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be
thankful. Buddha
The reason we can make
our requests known with thanksgiving is because we know from the
beginning that we are to receive and therefore we cannot help being
thankful. This grateful attitude to the Spirit puts us in very close
touch with power and adds much to the reality of the thing we are
dealing with. Without it we can do but little. So let us cultivate all
the gratitude that we can. In gratitude we will send our thoughts out
into the world, and as it comes back it will come laden with the fruits
of the Spirit. Dr.
Ernest Holmes, Creative Mind and Success
Thanksgiving Day in the
United States is Thursday, November 26th ... but we can choose any day
to be a day of thanksgiving, no matter where we are. A day of
Thanksgiving gives us the opportunity to be at-one with G-d, the Good
that we have received, and the Good that is unfolding for us from the
Great Un-Seen. In the words of wisdom from Rabbi Harold Kushner
above, we can see something that most of us experience daily, that is, a
taking for granted the things that we have received. Most of us,
of course, are grateful for paved roads and washing machines, but few of
us express gratitude for these things or the countless other good things
that are in our experience that make our lives more comfortable and
gives life a greater ease. All the things that we take for granted
have come to us from the same Mind, G-d, as the things that we pray for
and hope for, and expect. We are blessed, and most of us,
immensely blessed, yet we fail to recognize this Truth and therefore
fail to express our gratitude for all that we have been given.
Now, I am not writing this to make any of us
feel bad or become defensive, but to point out, with love, that Thanksgiving is our
opportunity to spend some time focusing on all that we have received,
not just personally, but collectively as well. It is this opening
our mind to what we have that builds within us a greater feeling of
gratitude. And this greater feeling of gratitude attracts even
more to us ... more good, more love, more joy, and so on. Some of
us get so fixated on the things that we have not received yet, or the
things that we feel we have lost, that our mind does not process any
great feeling of gratitude easily. But, no matter what it is that
we do not have yet or what we have lost ... "... at least we didn't
die; so, let us all be thankful," said the Buddha. And, in
reality, not dying is definitely something to be grateful for, because
as long as we are living, we have the opportunity to realize wonderful
changes in our lives and more to be grateful for.
No one likes to feel that they are taken for
granted, it makes us feel out of balance with Life. We cannot ignore our
responsibility to recognize and express that which we are grateful for,
as our thoughts of gratitude or lack of thoughts of gratitude, are
creating patterns of thought that attract to us that which is like
them. I often refer to the Master Mind Jesus' teaching in Luke
19:26, "I
tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one
who has not, even what he has will be taken away." In
this statement from his philosophy, we can see that Jesus was indeed a
spiritual genius. We have been given life so that we may enjoy it
and experience as much of it as we can accept for ourselves. But,
we can't multiply our Good, if we don't recognize the Good that we
already have. The Master Mind Jesus knew that we must consciously
have a feeling of gratitude, for gratitude is a feeling of
"having" ... and this feeling of having, brings us into
at-one-ment with the Source of All-Good, G-d, and opens our mind to the
infinite abundance that is available to us all ... and the more of it
that we can experience. Dr. Domenic Polifrone, often, began his
prayer-treatments with, "I rejoice and give thanks ... " and
these words create the opening in consciousness to accept our good.
Only two other countries celebrate Thanksgiving
in similar ways as the United States, Canada and Germany. But, as
I stated above, we can choose any day to be a day of thanksgiving.
True thanksgiving is a mental activity and a spiritual one as well.
As we take the time to express our gratitude for the things that we have
been blessed with, we shall experience a greater feeling of joy almost
immediately. This is evidence that we are touching our soul and in
turn our soul is connecting with the Soul of the Universe.
Lavish words of appreciation,
gratitude and thanksgiving, provides not only a lift to our spirit, but
also to our physical body and our emotional center. Expressing our
gratitude in words ... in prayer ... and in silent meditation ...
feeling gratitude to G-d ... expressing gratitude to the people in our
lives, and to those who have supported us in our good who are no longer
with us ... recognizing what we have and are grateful for ... takes time
... and for most of us a single day of thanksgiving is not enough time.
Yet, whatever time we spend in our expression of gratitude, it will,
with certainty, multiply the Good that we are grateful for.
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev.
Dr. Henry Lee Bates
Visit Rev. Bates BLOG: Living
the Science of Mind
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