November 28, 2002

• I wanted to share this with you today and my thoughts are at the end of it.....

  
  

  Today's thought is:
  Come, ye thankful people, come,
  Raise the song of Harvest-home;
  All is safely gathered in,
  Ere the winter storms begin.
  --Henry Alford

  
  

  Those who celebrated the first Thanksgiving were
  isolated, needy people who barely had a toehold in a
  strange land. They knew that the battle was just
  beginning, that they were looking down the long
  barrel of a bitter winter.

  
  

  They didn't wait to give thanks until they had won.
  They gave thanks for the success of survival--they
  were still alive. They gave thanks for the possibility
  of what could be, not that they had been spared
  enormous suffering and effort--because they hadn't.

  
  

  As we sit in our easy chairs, smell the turkey
  roasting in our self-cleaning ovens, and wait for the
  football game on television, we might meditate for a
  few minutes on the original thanksgiving. It may
  put us in touch with the true spirit of the day.

  
  

  Today, I give thanks for the chance to give thanks.
  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
  Today's meditation comes from the book
  Days of Healing, Days of Joy by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty copyright 1987
  available through our online bookstore at:
  http://www.hazeldenbookplace.org/store/product.asp?sku=5024

  
  

  _________________________

  
  

  Okay, the following two paragraphs really struck home for me:

  
  

  Those who celebrated the first Thanksgiving were
  isolated, needy people who barely had a toehold in a
  strange land. They knew that the battle was just
  beginning, that they were looking down the long
  barrel of a bitter winter.

  
  

  They didn't wait to give thanks until they had won.
  They gave thanks for the success of survival--they
  were still alive. They gave thanks for the possibility
  of what could be, not that they had been spared
  enormous suffering and effort--because they hadn't.

  
  

  The second paragraph above, where it says, "They gave thanks for the success of survival--they were still alive." Boy, did that ever hit a home run with me today.

  
  

  I'm getting these things in the mail because I signed up for this hazelden thought of the day and the meditation of the day but to get the ones that I do on any given day and have them so corelate with whatever it is that I am actually going through... well, it just sometimes spooks me, like someone out there is sending to me what it is that I need, I mean REALLY NEED to read/hear. Ya know?

  
  

  Okay, kick me in the rump and tell me I am imagining things now and that I have totally lost it, okay? I just wanted to share this because it smacked me so hard today of all days when I listed all the things I was thankful for and one of those things were, "I'm thankful to be alive after all the stunts I have pulled to end it."

  
  

  Love,
  Stormy

  • 4:11 pm
  • 2 Comments