Good Morning Meditation at Thanksgiving

Good morning new day!! The exclamation marks are all mine as, with the stealth of sunrise, you come bringing the strengths, vision and enjoyments which daily renew us.

Help me to tend wisely to the things given to do today. It's a busy time. Things get done by going at them one by one. It's like a countdown. Each specific task lines up after the one before and blends at length in another completed preparation. It's a good feeling with an energy all its own.

Thank you for our homes and communities. Thank you for the beautiful word homecoming. Thank you for lively expectation which feeds the desire to make festive. Bless the baking, cleaning, traveling, arriving. Bless those who await their loved ones. Bless all travelers. Bless the welcoming. Bless the gathering in.

Thank you wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Thank you as we prepare the gifts of the table. Thank you for Thanksgiving appetites and the folks who sit down to eat. Thank you for the stories that will be told and the stories that will be repeated.
Bless my family wherever we are. We scatter so far. Let the Thanksgiving table extend to include all who cannot pull their chairs in beside us this holiday.
Thank you for the laughter and the listening. Thank you for the memories that are the sweet dessert. Let us pause and quietly remember the ones not with us, by dint of loss, today. Tears are the unbidden guests for which a chair must also be found on Thanksgiving Day.

Thank you for dear friends in all the places I've found them. Sometimes they're the ones who found me and called me friend. Tenderly I count each by name. Places at the table are reserved for them if only they knew it.

They can't see the napkins folded or plates set out. But it's all right. It's something we all instinctively know, that we're invited to sit at many tables today as heads bow in gratitude.

Thanksgiving reminds us we are relational in spirit. We're made to care about each other. We're made to build each other up. We're made to not stand alone but to reach across divisions that are often simple misunderstandings that come with solutions if we allow it.

Let us do all we can to remove separation from out of our midst, if this difference of experiences should be the barrier. Let us strive toward trust, peace and friendly intentions. Certainly these qualities were at the first Thanksgiving feast. May the clasp of understanding be firm and gentle as we hold hands around our Thanksgiving tables.

It's a holiday to fill us through and through. We eat and find our hearts are replenished. Help us appreciate and respect resources used. The resources are of the earth - the food foremost - and also the resources of time. Time gives us a day, set aside from the others, to honor the harvest friendship tradition. We use our time to celebrate today in the same fitting fashion.

Thank you for the people in our lives who satisfy our hunger for acceptance, respect and kindness. Let us be truly thankful. Yes!! Let us be.

Good morning my thoughts. You formulate into expression like a friend who lights the way. You direct me to gratitude. You help me start this Thanksgiving Day.

Ro Giencke - November 22, 2011