Thanksgiving or Thanks-Receiving?

Remember the silly telephone game we all used to play: secretly pass a phrase around a circle by whispering into the ear next to you and see if it came around correctly? I don't know about you, but I never heard a phrase survive that gauntlet. The more members of the circle, the more the phrase was butchered. Remember when the last person in the circle said the phrase out loud and everyone gasped, "WHHHAAATTT?" shocked, amazed and confounded at what "came out" of the circle?

In many respects our own history, as well as our collective history is the same. We remember what we want to. We tell the story the way we think we heard it.

Take a minute to imagine:

You are in a dirty, cold place. You didn't know enough about sanitation so you are infested with all kinds of critters and parasites. Your clothes are thread bare. There are holes in your shoes, and nothing much to eat. The harsh living conditions have claimed many of your loved ones and friends. You are sure that you will be following them to the grave shortly. Your mind keeps drifting back to past times when you were surviving, when life was "better".

What were you thinking to get in that ship anyway? Damn! You should have listened to your mother! You should have stayed on that crummy piece of dirt that you didn't own but were going to spend the rest of your life toiling on. There are many reasons to despair, you don't know the land, and you don't know how to be successful in your hunting or farming. You KNOW you don't know. You might even be wondering for what sins is God punishing you. You might be praying to this God for relief, for an intercession, for a miracle.

In the midst of this you are introduced to someone who is living in the SAME place as you--yet is having a completely different experience. They are happy and healthy. They are well-fed, they prosper. The cold doesn't put them asunder and they certainly have enough to share.

You fall to your knees upon seeing the bounty of a dozen stalks of corn and a bird and some flat bread. The same food you would have turned your nose up to (we feed corn to the pigs after all) a year ago, is now the most delicious food you ever tasted. Your belly actually hurts when you eat because it was so empty--but you eat anyway--joyfully, thankfully. Giving thanks becomes important to you. You understand the "loft" of gratitude. It makes any circumstance transform. It transforms you.

This isn't the Thanksgiving story from my childhood. Mine was funny construction paper pilgrim hats, and Indian headbands--with enough eau de glue to make an entire class high as a kite. It was gaggles and gaggles of people, days of cooking, planned excursions into the kitchen to pilfer the desserts (they were always made first!). When it came time to eat, we each took turns expressing gratitude. I always heard the tried and true thanks for family, friends, life, and love from the adults. The children were more direct, "my new horse, my new bike, my new.....you get the drift. My grandfather used to call us kids "soft". We certainly had no idea how "hard" life could be, and we had no sense of the story of the pilgrims. How could we? We had always had plenty, never knew starvation and all of our problems were the kind you wanted to have.

The intercession the pilgrims experienced might be where the first "when I was a kid........" stories originated! Parents have been trying to top that story for hundreds of years--but none come close. Why?

Unlike all of the other, "when I was a kid" stories, the Thanksgiving story puts us amidst a Universal Truth: The Mind can only serve one Master, either gratitude or despair--but not both.
What is your most important prosperity organ? Your brain! Your choice to be grateful for the gifts you receive--even if the gifts appear humble.

In my Ezine last month, I received many responses about journaling. One journal I ask my clients to keep is the gratitude journal. I am grateful to once again be reminding you of the "rising above" the state of gratitude brings. Gratitude helps us keep from playing that silly game of "telephone" in our heads. The way we keep telling our self the story of our "story", again and again.........twisting it, obscuring it, and by so doing, placing our self at the mercy of it.

Imagine for a moment you are that pilgrim:
You realize that if you are a good student, you too can be at peace and one with your new home--just like with your new found neighbor. When the ship comes again, with fresh supplies and more people, you have your chance to return--but you know you will not be happy to return to that old survival mode in your old home. While life here may appear to be harsh--it has promise, opportunity and you now are changed: open and willing to receive the gifts of the Universe, willing to be a good student, willing to Prosper. While everything on the outside had remained the same, gratitude for what you have received has radically altered the landscape of your life.

In our own way, each of us is replaying this Thanksgiving story. We say goodbye to old situations and circumstances--set sail for the "better life" and encounter hardship along the way.

If you are in the position right now that you feel you need an intercession or miracle, remember they do happen. Give up your notion you know what the miracle looks like, act like or should be like. What if those pilgrims, said "no" to the Indians because they were expecting the ship to save them?

If you have been on cruise control, lying low, feeling good--remember we all need to take rest, because the top of one mountain is the bottom of another. I have learned there are some angels whose only job is to make certain you do not get too comfortable and miss your life. If you feel the gentle tapping of the angels, listen to it. Don't make them put a boot up your *ss.
I have a client who knew the answer to a question I asked, but said, "I don't know". I reminded the client they did know, and not owning what you know, keeps you where you are. You know, getting more of what it is you do not want. It was hard, but they owned it, all of it. Shortly after that session I received an ecstatic phone call detailing the amount of business they had been given in the last week--more than the previous 6 months.

The Universe always works this way. It is always willing, wanting and capable to give--"pressing down into us for good measure" what we are capable of receiving. The Universe needs us to be the kind of person capable of holding the gifts sent our way.

If you have been "hanging-in there"; waiting for something to go wrong and fearful of your future, spend the holiday counting your blessings and then counting them again. A Universal Truth: we are only given what we can handle.

If you are not where you want to be, then ask yourself, "What do I know that I am not owning? What is it I am trying to pretend I don't know?"

If you have it good right now, be thankful! And invite others to join you, sharing in your bounty. Remember your invitation for others to join you in being a good receiver is a beautiful gift. How we wear our happiness and prosperity can be a healing balm to those in need, or a beacon of light to call others higher.

An Invitation for You!

I invite you to join me this Thanksgiving to practice what we know. As we commit to compassionate accountability for our selves, we will not "should" our self or feel guilty if we take a mis-step. We will simply affirm our willingness to be good receivers. Responsible containers for the good Divine Universal Source Energy is always sending. We affirm the gift of thanks is made manifest in our lives. Always.

May we be ever so humble to receive the blessings of the Universe.
May we use what we are given gratefully.
May we share what we are given lovingly.
May we all be Peace, share Peace, and receive Peace.