It's a Ritual Sacrifice, with Pie

Fran Carey

© Copyright 2024 Fran Carey, All Rights Reserved.

To quote Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Every year, on the fourth Thursday in November, we celebrate Thanksgiving, to commemorate the mythical feast of unity and thanks the Pilgrims had with their Native friends who had saved them from starvation.  Most of us are unlikely to be faced with actual starvation these days, and that is but one of the things for which we should be thankful everyday, not just one day in November.

Taking a single day to enumerate, celebrate, and give thanks for our blessings is still a good idea.  We should refocus on that aspect of the holiday, rather than on the glorification of gluttony or occasion for family dissension it so often becomes.

I challenge you to make the day and the entire period from Thanksgiving to Christmas a time of thankfulness.  Each day, post one thing for which you are thankful on your social media.  Mine for yesterday was that I live in a very walkable neighborhood.

On Thanksgiving itself, let's make that sacrifice mean something.  Actually take the time to acknowledge the farmers, ranchers, field hands, pickers, packers, and King Soopers employees who made the meal possible, as well as the truckers, mechanics, railroad personnel, water department workers, and everyone else in the supply chain.  Lift a glass to them or say a prayer of thanks for their hard work.  Also make sure to honor and thank the cook, or cooks.  Mashing potatoes by hand is hard work!

If you have animal products, thank the animal for its sacrifice.  Thank the Earth for Her bounty.  Thank the Sun for the light, the water cycle for the water, the air for being there for us to breathe.  Go outside and leave a snack for the earth spirits.  Go for a walk after lunch and observe and thank the trees, shrubs, birds, all beings, animate or inanimate.  We are all related, like puzzle pieces or links in a chain.

And thank yourself for the hard work you have put in this year, in the workplace, the home, your spiritual, intellectual, and emotional growth.  Thank your family for their teachings.  You don't have to tell them they taught you what not to do.

Use this holiday as a reminder to yourself of how much we have to be thankful for.  Indoor plumbing.  Hot and cold running water.  Sufficient food, water, shelter.  Books.  Sunsets.  And whatever else it is that helps you see Spirit and find those little moments of joy that keep us hanging on.  And thriving, not just surviving.  And be thankful for surviving.  Find the little things and celebrate them.  Chickadees!

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