Some of you may recall that last year I shared my experience of a blessing during the Thanksgiving celebration at Prana (Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens). This year I again experienced the blessing of Thanksgiving at Prana, including an opportunity to share with those gathered including John-Roger. I came away even more aware of the greater Thanksgiving that is always present with Spirit in Its outpouring upon all in this world.
I share again now the invitation to all of us to give thanks for all that has gone before us. We have been given a life in this world that has been blessed and blessed for greater good to prevail. I saw the original gathering for Thanksgiving in the garden as in Eden and that blessing is the eternal providing for every need and with a continual outpouring for greater good to become. The blessing is ever fruitful, always coming to our faith and trust in the good and our good works. I saw that so many especially our ancestors have given and sacrificed to the good. We are partaking in their faith, their trust, their willingness to hold for and choose what is good. So take a moment each day to give thanks for those who have trusted in and given their lives that we would find greater good in this world.
I am reminded that George Washington as the first President of the USA signed a proclamation for a Public Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer which in part reads as:
“the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour”
You may have seen the famous painting of Washington kneeling in solitary prayer in the forest snow with his trusted horse beside him. While I can certainly imagine that he was called to prayer while facing the most difficult of circumstances such as those endured at Valley Forge, I can also see him kneeling in a prayer of Thanksgiving.
“to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence . . . and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.”
What Washington was proclaiming was focused upon all the nations of the world.
“to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.”
“NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation.”
That original Thanksgiving was November 26, 1789. And the greater Thanksgiving is in service to the beneficent author of all that was, that is, and will be good that we may again and forever more unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks. And as I completed the blessing of this Thanksgiving Day, the best is yet to come.
Baruch Bashan
