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Just like the Pilgrims so long ago, when most people sit down to Thanksgiving dinner they
express gratitude for the heaping plate of food before them. Unlike the Pilgrims, however, whose thanks were
offered specifically to God in heartfelt prayers, today too many people's words of gratitude are offered in a
cursory manner. Before putting that first forkful of turkey into their mouths, they say their prayers as a
necessary formality without much thought to a Divine Presence.
It's easy to find ourselves feeling physically full but spiritually empty at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday
feast. Much like other holidays, religious or otherwise, many of us forget to invite God to our Thanksgiving
table.
In other words, we don't look at the bigger picture. We don't factor in how God might have had a hand in creating
the food we are about to eat, in the abundance and prosperity that made it possible to purchase and prepare the
feast or in our safe arrival at the Thanksgiving table. Thanksgiving offers a wonderful opportunity to put God into
the picture, which transforms the holiday into a spiritual and meaningful one.
With a little thought and planning, we can transform empty Thanksgiving observances into meaning-full and
spirit-full rituals and traditions. And we don't have to be particularly religious to do so. To achieve this, we
need only have a belief in God and a desire to have this particular holiday be a spiritual experience. If we
possess these, we are well on the way to creating a meaning-full and spirit-full holiday.
In addition, incorporating any or all of the following six steps into a Thanksgiving celebration will help change
an empty holiday observance into a meaning-full and spirit-full one:
1. Voice your intention to have a spiritual experience. You can simple state your intention aloud or write it on a
piece of paper Intention has an awesome ability to manifest. So, clearly intend that this Thanksgiving celebration
will feel and be spiritual for you. Imagine that your intention serves as an invitation sent upward, outward,
inward – wherever you believe God resides – to the Divine. After all, if you don't invite God to dinner, God won't
know to show up.
2. Have faith that God will arrive. It's difficult to have a spiritual experience if you don't, first, believe in
God, and second, have faith that you can have an experience of God. You can't ‘believe it when you see it' with
God. You have to believe it so you can see it.
3. Develop the courage to let God in. Fear represents the largest thing that stops most people from having a
spiritual experience. They are afraid of what the experience will be like, how it will change them, how it will
affect their lives. You have to have courage to experience God. If you are too afraid to open the door when your
dinner guest rings the bell, you'll be dining alone.
4. Create a sanctuary. This is a specially decorated and prepared space in which you plan to serve your
Thanksgiving dinner. When you make the effort to create a sacred space for any celebration or holiday observance,
you will find your festivities automatically take on a more spiritual atmosphere and energy. In other words, create
a sacred space. In the Old Testament, God tells the Jews, "Build for me a sanctuary and I will dwell among you."
(Exodus 25:8-9) Create a space in which God can "be" with you.
5. Remember to thank God. Create prayers especially for this day. If you don't want to write your own prayer, use
an existing one from your own faith or from some religious or spiritual tradition. Prayers, being what they are –
words spoken to God – automatically give the meal a spiritual bent and cause us to remember God.
In addition, be sure to offer prayers of gratitude to
God for the good things in your life, not just for the food on the table. Go around the table and let each person
voice a prayer out loud that speaks of the things for which they feel grateful. The Pilgrims specifically thanked
God for surviving the harsh winter, for the food they had harvested and for the new neighbors – the Indians. Each
person has at least one thing for which they feel particularly thankful and for which they can offer a personal
prayer to God.
6. Have each person relate the miracles that occurred in their lives since last Thanksgiving. Go around the table
again so each person has a chance to share all the miracles they can remember. These miracles don’t have to be
large. They can be anything that just seemed special, unexpected, unusual or miraculous in any way. They can be
synchronistic events or goals achieved easily and effortless as if by an act of grace.
7. Take on the role of spiritual leader. Don’t rely on anyone else to make this year’s Thanksgiving observance a
spiritual experience for you. Take responsibility and make it that for yourself and for the other people sharing
the holiday with you. Don’t be afraid to try something new or to be creative. Bring spiritually symbolic items to
your table or share spiritual readings. Orchestrate the meal in a way that feels spiritual to you, and other people
will feel that energy as well.
By taking these seven steps toward a meaningful and spiritual Thanksgiving observance, you can ensure that you not
only invite God to your Thanksgiving celebration but that you feel – if not actually see – God sitting at your
table.
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