Giving Thanks

It's been a very exciting year!  From a wedding to a grandson to special people in the lives of my younger son and daughter, we have much for which to be thankful.  We represent 4 cultural heritages and the religious diversity that goes along with them, including a variety of thoughts and beliefs that don't necessarily fit into a specific box.  If I weren't already open to and interested in  different religious beliefs , I certainly would have to learn!  I hear questions all the time about how on earth this little southern family has become an international one!  We think of ourselves as lucky, and, yes, thankful.  Our lives are enriched by these differences.  But even with those differences, there are so many similarities:  love of family is the biggest....respect, acceptance, importance of education -whether it is traditional or self taught---desire to be humble and selfless, but at the same time to be the best possible.  I know I could come up with more!

I started thinking about how to express thanks on this upcoming Thanksgiving Day, keeping all beliefs in mind.  So, I have been looking at different ways to do that.  I found a Hindu Thanksgiving prayer that I really like:

Let us together (-saha) be protected (-na vavatu) and let us together be nourished (-bhunaktu) by God’s blessings. Let us together join our mental forces in strength (-veeryam) for the benefit of humanity (-karvaa vahai). Let our efforts at learning be luminous (-tejasvi) and filled with joy, and endowed with the force of purpose (-vadhita mastu). Let us never (-maa) be poisoned (-vishaa) with the seeds of hatred for anyone. Let there be peace and serenity (-shaantih) in all the three universes.

Then I found this which I paraphrased:

We are thankful for food and remember the hungry.

We are thankful for health and remember the sick.

We are thankful for friends and remember the friendless.

We are thankful for freedom and remember the enslaved.

We are thankful for family and remember those alone.

May these remembrances stir us to service,

That the gifts we have be used for others. 

 I am thankful to all I love and for whom they love, and for who they are and for whom they strive to be.