Abundance and Gratefulness

    The hutch that Mark built many years ago is now decorated for  Thanksgiving with symbols of abundance and gratefulness. The book, One Hundred Graces by Marcia and Jack Kelly was a gift from one of the doctors Mark worked with in Worcester, New York.  This book includes blessings from many traditions, including Christian and Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist, Islamic and Native American. No matter who or what we believe to be the source of our nourishment, people of every faith offer thanks to show our gratefulness before partaking of the food provided. 

    The bread plate that says: "Give us this day our daily bread" was a gift from Mark's sister that offers the beginning of a Christian prayer. The whole prayer is in our book and goes like this:

Give us this day our daily bread, 

O Father in heaven,

and grant that we who are filled with good things

from Your open hand may never 

close our hearts to the hungry, 

the homeless, and the poor;

in the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of 

the Holy Spirit. 

    The dish of rice is an Asian symbol of abundance and both physical and spiritual nourishment. This is an ancient Hindu blessing for a meal that nearly always includes rice:

The ritual is one

The food is one

We who offer the food are one

The fire of hunger is also one

All action is one

We who understand this are one.

    

    The Native American doll was mine when I was a child in the sixties. She represents the Native Americans who participated in the first Thanksgiving. I realize that Thanksgiving Day is a day of mourning and protest for many Native Americans because it commemorates the arrival of settlers in North America and the centuries of oppression and genocide that followed. I deeply regret the treatment of these honorable people by my forefathers. I also respect and admire the deep spirituality that Native Americans have with the Earth. This Native American grace comes from The Lama Foundation in San Cristobal, New Mexico:

Now that I am about to eat, Great Spirit, 

give my thanks to the beasts and birds

whom You have provided for my hunger;

and pray deliver my sorrow

that living things must make a sacrifice

for my comfort and well-being.

Let the feather of corn

spring up in its time

and let it not wither

but make full grains for the fires

of our cooking pots,

now that I am about to eat.

        My daughter, Vera, made the sign: "Today is a Gift" which is a line from Mark's song about being grateful for First World Problems. Should I make apple crisp or pumpkin pie for dessert tomorrow? That is a first world problem. 

For more on Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving Every Day