In the United States this is Thanksgiving Day. Yet while millions seek a place in their hearts from which to express gratitude, the world continues to be filled with terror and uncertainty.
The horrific terrorist attack in Mumbai tells our world, again, that the human heart is so deeply wounded. What could cause any human being to do such things to other human beings? I beg to ask these terrorists, What hurts you so much that you feel you have to hurt others in order to heal it?
And on the pages of U.S. newspapers yesterday and today, still more word of still more money being allocated by the United States government for still more bailouts in order to get still more people to spend still more money.
The problem is America, and elsewhere around the world, is lack of credit, which creates lack of spending. And the high rollers keep taking their money out of the stock market —– at a time when they should actually be putting it in. Panic in the marketplace is a remarkable thing. A fear-driven world can never work. An every-man-for-himself, go-for-the-lifeboats mentality can never bring us to peace and serenity, safety and joy on this planet.
Something must be done, and it must be done fast. The world must take a cold, clear look at itself and make a huge decision: Is this how we really want to live? Is this who we really are, as a species? Is this what it means to be human?
And, of course, our hearts go out today to all of those people who have been directly affected by the terrible events in India’s financial capital. We pray for Mumbai and its people, and we pray for all the people in a world that has become increasingly a place of horror and sadness, of killing in the name of correcting grievances, and of violence in the name of righteousness.
What has made humanity so angry? So terribly, terribly angry…? I can tell you…but that is going to wait for another day. Today, even in the midst of all of this…even in the midst of people dying and other people losing their life savings to the economic mess and people starving in Haiti and elsewhere around the world…even in the midst of this, there is still much for which many can be grateful.
I have written before, in other times and places, that I have an idea about this holiday that is different from most Americans. I think that the holiday should be abolished.
I don’t think that Thanksgiving should be a holiday at all. I think it should be a HOLY day, and placed on the calendar of all sacred days and events.
I also think we should change the way that Thanksgiving is celebrated. Forget about sitting down to a big meal and offering thanks to God for all the bounty that has been received during the past year. Instead, create a new ritual. Sit down together and thank God for all the goodness that is to come.
Do not go around the table and have each guest tell what he or she has to be thankful for. Rather, go around the table and have each guest say what they are going to be thankful for in the coming year-and then have everyone give thanks right then and there, ahead of time.
Use the grace and the power of gratitude in advance! Make your Manifestation List for the coming 12 months. Then hold a Thanksgiving-in-Advance dinner ritual. For that matter, repeat the ritual every day for the next year. Sincerely believe and be grateful for receiving the gifts that you just know will shower down upon you from God’s limitless bounty.
In Conversations with God the message about gratitude is clear. It is the most powerful form of prayer. Gratitude in advance, not gratitude after the fact. This is because to thank God in advance for something is the highest form of faith. It is a statement of supreme confidence. It is the Ultimate Knowing.
When we come from this Place of Knowing, we move into an energy that creates miracles. The most powerful prayer that I ever heard is only 17 words long:
Thank you, God,
for helping me
to understand
that this problem
has already been
solved for me.
So, while it is well and good to say “thanks” for things past, especially with other human beings to whom we owe a word of gratitude, it is extremely empowering to thank God ahead of time for all the goodness that will flow to you in the coming year. It is even more powerful to decide ahead of time what that goodness will be.
Make a list. Check it twice. Write down all that you choose to have happen between Thanksgiving 2008 and Thanksgiving 2009. Read your list out loud at dinner. Encourage others to do the same. Share and Declare. There are few things more inspiring and powerful than public declaration.
Suddenly, Thanksgiving Weekend 2008 will have a new meaning. It will now be about Sharing and Declaring. It will be about Knowing and Growing. We grow into what we know.
So I think that Thanksgiving should not be a mere holiday. It should be elevated to a Holy Day. It should be the holiest day of the year. The day on which we say “thanks be to God” for all the wonder, all the abundance, and all the joys of life that we anticipate and that we know in our hearts God is sending to us in the coming year.
It should be the holiest day of the year because gratitude is the most sacred tool in the Creator’s Toolbox. With it anything can be produced, anything can be created, anything can be experienced!
I am thankful that the months between now and Thanksgiving 2009 will be months in which we work together as A World Determined, to find peace, to find joy, to find security, to find a way for all of our people in live in dignity and sufficiency.
God bless you all.
Love…neale.