Click here to view the photo slideshow from MSIA’s Thanksgiving at Prana, 2005.
What a beautiful Thanksgiving Day we had here at Prana (also known as Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens)! We could feel you all with us. The experience of family and connection was so present, so sweet, so ordinary and so big at the same time. Each year, more people come—and more and more families, too. We had more than 215 people here—and John-Roger came to be with us, too!
The decorations were just gorgeous. Fall colored ribbons festooning the tables, fresh organic fruit constellated around the settings—and some of the most downright pretty paper plateware I’ve ever seen. Don’t you love combining beauty, ecology, and practicality?
The kitchen started humming plenty early, as it had been for the past three days. David and Kelly Funk were with us in fine Prana tradition, along with the Bottes, Claudie & Guillaume, and our baker extraordinaire Elaine Kitchell. David and Kelly come from Washington state each year to cook Thanksgiving dinner for us. Their loving and organization brought so much grace to all the preparations. They each had a binder with everything mapped out, from portions to volunteer action lists to a timeline countdown for Thanksgiving Day. I gotta tell you, looking through those binders was like taking a walk through the Louvre—works of art, inspired by loving, caring, and sharing. And all of that hidden in what looked like simple binders full of papers!
While all of this was going on in the kitchen, I was working at the coffee/tea bar with Sylvia Giussani and Gloria Goodell. We had been making little baby Japanese tea lattes as appetizers for people, and then the dinner hour arrived. We all circled up outside in the courtyard by the big meditation pool and called in the Light. Our MC’s for the day, Paul Kaye and the beauteous Shelley Noble, let us know that J-R and his staff were on their way, too. The day kept getting better and better.
The meal itself was incredible. The first comments I heard from people coming down the buffet line were about the incredible energy with the food, followed by “ooohs” and “aaaahs” about the physical beauty and tastiness. Everything had such a vibration with it—like the way Jell-O jiggles in a bowl, as if the food were singing to us, chanting with us, nourishing us literally in God’s name, and Love, Light and Sound.
After dinner and dessert we gathered for entertainment. Paul and Shelley tag-team introduced the different acts with impish wit and spontaneity. Paul and Jsu Garcia started us off, treating us to another installment in the dance saga of Paul’s unrequited love for the capricious Latino Jsu. Nathaniel Sharratt touched us all with a new song he composed with J-R, encouraging us all to “have some love and joy every day.” Jsu and James Hassett (lovingly referred to as “Hatchet” by Jsu) gave us a taste of Johnny Cash, affirming how we all “Walk the Line” with loving and Light.
And Kim Guisinger! Kim Guisinger! Oh, sweet family you should have heard the sweetness of her voice and the joy coming off of her face as she sang for us. I have no idea what the name of the song was, but it was a love song, through and through.
Then came Bob Tackney, with a Soul Realm tune called “Beyond the Veil,” and Eric Albrecht with a ditty called “Here in This Moment.” Eric can so play on that guitar! Gregory Vahanian came up next, with a just-written comic piece about gratitude consciousness, followed by John Morgan and a sweet healing song. We were all far away together at this point.
Sally Kirkland shared a reading of quotes from J-R, John Morton, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Emerson, George Bernard Shaw, Walt Whitman—it was a moving melody discourse of love wisdoms, closing with a quote from J-R about where it’s really at: “Sit down in spiritual exercises, close your eyes, and have the intention to stalk the Spirit that loves you…”
Eric Lumiere shared a rising tune about coming together, inspired by Hurricane Katrina, and Steve Chopyak brought the entertainment to a close with an exquisite, spontaneous piano composition about gratitude.
And all the while, we had the sweetness of the inner Traveler and J-R present with us.
We all pitched in together to clean up at the end. I am always amazed by how quickly the seminar rooms and foyer are returned to their everyday state. The leftovers were wrapped and tucked away in the big walk-in fridge, and folks continued to chat, walk the labyrinth, stroll the gardens, and just enjoy being together. Good family, good friends, good food, good times. What a sweet day.
We hope your Thanksgiving day was full of joy and blessings, too, and thanks for being with us with your loving and Light. Here’s a quote from J-R in his book The Path to Mastership to bring this to a close:
“There is always joy in the presence of the Lord. And the presence of the Lord is not a once-in-a-while process. It is a constant, ongoing, moment-to-moment reality.”
Sounds like a good way to have Thanksgiving every day. God bless us all.
