gratitude - home
- contents
|
|
It
is therefore recommended. . . to set apart Thursday the
eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and
praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people
may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and
consecrate themselves to the service of their divine
benefactor.
Samuel
Adams
November
1, 1777 (adopted by the 13 states
as the first official Thanksgiving Proclamation) |
|
|
Thanksgiving
Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest people;
but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the
gratitude.
E.P. Powell
|
|
|
For,
after all, put it as we may to ourselves, we are all of us from
birth to death
guests at a table which we did not spread. The sun, the earth,
love, friends,
our very breath are parts of the banquet. . . . Shall we think of the
day as a chance
to come nearer to our Host, and to find out something of Him who has
fed us so long?
Rebecca
Harding Davis
|
|
When we sit down
to Thanksgiving dinner, I will be grateful
that a
turkey gave its
life--however unwillingly or ignorantly--so that we
might eat and
thus stay alive. I'll be thankful to the people who
raised
the turkeys, who grew the corn, who canned the cranberry
sauce,
who grew the wheat
from which the dinner rolls are made.
tom walsh
|
|
We have so
much, yet many Americans feel dissatisfied. Somehow the
full table, symbol of abundance to the pilgrims, is not
enough. We yearn
for something far beyond the material satisfaction. Find your
place in
history this Thanksgiving by stretching beyond your table.
Celebrate your
survival by offering peace and sharing with your neighbors.
Make the shift
from an illogical feeling of lack to the recognition of
abundance. Invite the
Spirit to your feast, and prepare to feed the world.
Jennifer James
|
|
|
As
we express our gratitude, we must never forget
that the highest
appreciation is not to utter words,
but to live by them.
John
Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Thanksgiving,
after all, is a word of action.
W.J.
Cameron
|
|
|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
our
current e-zine
-
the
people behind the words
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
|
Thanksgiving
Day comes, by statute, once a year;
to the honest person
it comes as frequently
as the heart of gratitude will allow.
Edward
Sandford Martin
|
|
Thanksgiving
is the holiday of
peace, the celebration of work
and the simple
life. . .
a true
folk-festival that speaks the
poetry of the turn of the
seasons,
the beauty of seedtime and
harvest, the ripe product of
the year--and the deep, deep
connection of all these
things with God.
Ray
Stannard Baker
|
|
On
Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.
William
Jennings Bryan
|
|
The
Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.
No Americans have been more impoverished than these who,
nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.
H.U.
Westermayer
|
|
|
|
It
is the duty of nations as well as of people to own their
dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess
their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with
assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and
pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the
Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those
nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
We know
that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are
subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.
May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war
which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted
upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our
national reformation as a whole people?
We have
been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we
have been preserved these many years in peace and
prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no
other nation has ever grown.
But we have
forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which
preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and
strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the
deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were
produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too
self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has
seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly,
reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart
and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore
invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United
States, and also those who are at sea and those who are
sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the
last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and
praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.
Abraham
Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863
|
|
|
How
wonderful it would be if we could help our children and
grandchildren
to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens the
doors.
It changes a child's personality. A child is resentful,
negative—or thankful.
Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw
people.
John Marks Templeton
|
|
We
celebrate Thanksgiving along with the rest of America,
maybe in different ways and for different reasons. Despite
everything that's happened to us since we fed the Pilgrims,
we still have our language, our culture, our distinct social
system. Even in a nuclear age, we still have a tribal people.
Wilma Mankiller, principal chief of the Cherokee nation
|
|
The
unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart
sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will
find,
in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
Henry
Ward Beecher
|
|
|
|
The
more I focused on lack and on what I couldn’t have, the more
depressed I became.
The more depressed I became, the more I focused on lack.
My soul whispered that
what I really yearned for was not financial security but financial
serenity.
I was still—quiet enough to listen.
At that moment I acknowledged the deep longing in my heart.
What I hungered for was an inner peace that the world could not take
away.
I asked for help
and committed to following wheresoever Spirit would lead me.
For the first time in my life
I discarded my five-year goals and became a seeker, a pilgrim, a
sojourner.
When I surrendered my desire for security and sought serenity
instead, I looked at my life
with open eyes.
I saw that I had much for which to be grateful.
I felt humbled by my riches
and regretted that I took for granted the abundance that already
existed in my life.
How could I expect more from the universe when I didn’t appreciate
what I already had?
Sarah Ban Breathnach |
|
Be
grateful simply for being alive.
When you are grateful for life, pure
and simple, your
life becomes one you can be grateful for.
That may
strike you as circular or even backward
logic, but your attitude really
does have an effect on how
things work out.
When you can’t change
your life any other way, you
can still change your attitude.
When
you do, your life changes.
You find more chances to love, and you
will be
surprised to see how much more love is returned to you.
Bernie Siegel
|
|
Thanksgiving reminds us that
no matter what befalls us in life, we can
take the charred remnants and we can reconstruct a life unimaginably
richer than that from which the shards and pieces fell.
Craig D. Lounsbrough |
|
|
|
HOME
- contents - Daily
Meditations - abundance - acceptance
- achievement
- action
- adversity
-
advertising
- aging - ambition
anger
- anticipation
- anxiety - apathy - appreciation -
arrogance
- art - attitude
- authenticity
- awakening - awareness
-
awe
balance - beauty
-
being yourself
- beliefs
- body
- brooding
- busyness - caring -
celebration
- challenges -
change - character
charity - children
-
choices
-
Christianity
- coincidence
- commitment
- common
sense
- community
- comparison - compassion
competition - complaining
- compliments -
compromise
- confidence - conformity
- conscience
-
contentment - control
- cooperation
courage -
covetousness
- creativity
- crisis - criticism
-
cruelty
- death
- decisions
- desire
- determination
- disappointment
discipline -
discouragement - diversity -
doubt - dreams
- earth - education -
ego - emotions -
encouragement
- enlightenment
enthusiasm - envy
- eternity
- ethics - example - exercise - experience - failure
-
faith
- fame
- family - fate - fathers
-
fault-finding
fear
- feelings - finances
- flowers - forgiveness
-
freedom
- friendship
- frustration - fun - the future
- garden of life - gardening
generosity -
gentleness
- giving
- goals - God
- goodness
- grace -
gratitude
- greatness
- greed
- grief - growing up
- guilt -
habit
happiness
- hatred
- healing
-
health -
heart
- helpfulness
- home - honesty
- hope
- hospitality - humility
- hurry
-
ideals - identity
idleness - idolatry
- ignorance
- illusion -
imagination - impatience
-
individuality
- the inner child - inspiration -
integrity - intimacy
introspection - intuition
- jealousy
- journey of life - joy
- judgment - karma - kindness
-
knowledge - language
- laughter
-
laziness
leadership
-
learning - letting
go - life
- listening - loneliness
- love
- lying - magic - marriage
-
materialism
- meanness
- meditation
mindfulness
- miracles
-
mistakes - mistrust
- moderation - money -
mothers
- motivation - music - mystery
- nature
-
negative
attitude
now -
oneness
- open-mindedness
- opportunity
-
optimism
-
pain - parenting - passion
- the past - patience
-
peace -
perfectionism
perseverance
- perspective - pessimism
- play
- poetry -
positive
thoughts
- possessions
-
potential - poverty -
power - praise
prayer
- prejudice
- pride - principle
- problems - progress
- prosperity
- purpose
- reading -recreation
- reflection
- relationships
religion
- reputation - resentment
-
respect - responsibility
- rest - revenge
-
risk - role models
- running -
ruts - sadness
-
safety
seasons of
life - self - self-love
-
self-pity
-
self-reliance - self-respect
- selfishness - serving others - shame
- silence
- simplicity
slowing
down - smiles
-solitude - sorrow -
spirit -
stories -
strength - stress
- stupidity
- success -
suffering - talent
the tapestry of life - teachers - thoughts
- time
- today - tolerance
-
traditions
-
trees
-
trust
- truth - unfulfilled
dreams
- values
vanity
- virtue
- vulnerability - walking - war
- wealth - weight
issues - wisdom
-
women -
wonder - work
-
worry - worship
youth
- spring - summer
- fall - winter
-
Christmas - Thanksgiving
-
New Year - America
-
Zen sayings -
articles
& excerpts
Native American
wisdom
-
The Law of Attraction -
obstacles to
living
life fully
- e-zine archives
-
quotations
contents
our most recent e-zine - Great
Thinkers - the people behind the words
|
|
|
|
Gratitude
consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of our
state,
and to the multitude of God’s gifts, taken one by one.
It fills us with a consciousness
that God loves and cares for us, even to the least event and
smallest need of life.
It is a blessed thought that from our childhood God has been laying
his fatherly hands upon us,
and always in benediction, and that even the strokes of his hands
are blessings,
and among the chiefest we have ever received.
Henry Edward Manning |
|
Whatever
our individual troubles and challenges may be, it’s important to
pause
every now and then to appreciate all that we have, on every level.
We need to literally “count our blessings,” give thanks for
them,
allow
ourselves to enjoy them, and relish the experience
of
prosperity we already have.
Shakti Gawain |
|
Not what we
say about our blessings, but how we use
them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.
W.T. Purkiser |
|
The private and personal blessings we enjoy, the
blessings
of immunity, safeguard, liberty, and integrity,
deserve the thanksgiving of a whole life.
Jeremy Taylor |
|
I
remember taking a little time in each year to think about my life
and make
a long list of the people and things I was grateful for.
Thanksgiving for me
really was a time of being thankful. I think it is great for
people of all ages
to celebrate the day with good people, good food, and football, but
I hope in
the midst of our busy lives we have not forgotten the importance of
observing
the real reason for the holiday: to give thanks.
Matthias
Reightman
|
|
My Thanksgiving (excerpt)
Don Henley
. . . Now the trouble with you and me, my friend
Is the trouble with this nation
Too many blessings, too little appreciation
And I know that kind of notion--well, it just ain't cool
So send me back to Sunday school
Because I'm tired of waiting for reason to arrive
It's too long we've been living
These unexamined lives
I've got great expectations
I've got family and friends
I've got satisfying work
I've got a back that bends
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving. . . .
Here in this fragmented world, I still believe
In learning how to give love, and how to receive it
And I would not be among those who abuse this privilege
Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge
And I don't mind saying that I still love it all
I wallowed in the springtime
Now I'm welcoming the fall
For every moment of joy
Every hour of fear
For every winding road that brought me here
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving
For everyone who helped me start
And for everything that broke my heart
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving.
|
|
|
|
|
Happy
|
|
|
|
We remember the Pilgrims on
Thanksgiving Day, not so much for their
turkey dinner, but for the sheer faith that inspired them to give
thanks in
a year that saw nearly half their number die of sickness.
Yet they prayed with thanksgiving.
Ralph F. Wilson |
|
That which we bless multiplies. This is an
inescapable spiritual law of
the universe. The one who chooses the spiritual pathway to
success
and happiness must be willing to shift from an attitude of lack to
one
of thanksgiving in order to take the first step.
Jim Munson |
|
|
We
have some
inspiring and motivational books that may interest you. Our main way of supporting this site is
through the sale of books, either physical copies
or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the
online reader). All of the money that we earn
through them comes back to the site
in one way or another. Just click on the picture
to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and
non-fiction! |
|
|
Giving Thanks
Joanne Shenandoah, Jake Swamp
In respect to our home the Earth, we say thank you
To the Earth for everything that she gives to us
Nourishing us every day
We give thanks to all the water in the world
Everything within that water
We give thanks to all the grass that lives on the land
We give thanks to all the berries, the fruits, the medicines
We give thanks to the animals that keep the forest clean
We give thanks to all the trees for the different uses that they
give to us
For shelters, fires that we make in the winter time, keeping us
warm
We give thanks to the birds who sing their beautiful songs
We give thanks to the four winds
We give thanks to the grandfathers, the ones that bring the rain
And we give thanks to our oldest brother the sun,
Who shines his light every day
We give thanks to our oldest grandmother the Moon
For she is the one that has been charged with the duty
To make sure that life has a continuance
She is the one that watches over all the movements of the water
And also the water within us
We give thanks to the stars, her helpers
And we give a special thanksgiving to the four sacred beings
That watch over the human family
Sometimes we notice them when we are traveling in dangerous places
They are the ones that come to our minds and say,
"Go around, don't go any further."
So that's why they are there, to protect us, to steer us away from
danger
So that's what we do, we start right from the earth,
And we climb a ladder right to the special place beyond the
heavens
Where there's a special Spirit that lives
A spirit that made it possible for us to be here
And everything that lives here
And so with the collectiveness of our mind and hearts,
We send a special thanksgiving and greeting to the Great Spirit of
us all
-From Joanne
Shenandoah's
2003 album, Covenant.
|
|
|
I
am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. .
.
O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on
my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.
Henry David
Thoreau |
|
Thanksgiving
comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all
ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there
is
always a time for gratitude and new beginnings.
J. Robert Moskin |
|
We
give thanks often with a tearful, doubtful voice, for our spiritual
mercies
positive, but what an almost infinite field there is for mercies
negative! We
cannot even imagine all that God has allowed us not to do, not to
be.
Frances Ridley Havergal |
|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
our
current e-zine
-
the
people behind the words
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
|
|
|