Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Thanksgiving Moon<\/p>\n
In long ago still Christian days I sought advice from a spiritual director, a Jesuit nun whose name I have forgotten. \u00a0I have not forgotten her advice, however. \u00a0“Keep a gratitude journal. \u00a0All spirituality begins in gratitude.”<\/p>\n
Thanksgiving has become a primary, if the not the primary, American holiday. \u00a0As such, it is one of the highlights of holiseason, a family focused festival celebrated across religious, class and ethnic lines. \u00a0 Its emphasis on gratitude, now long unmoored from its ironic relationship to the natives of the East Coast,who reportedly provided the food for the “first Thanksgiving,” enhances it.<\/p>\n
It is a holiday with a focus on thankfulness, not getfulness, and as such, might be the most unusual holiday of them all. \u00a0We come together with a desire to eat together, of course. Festive banqueting is an ancient way of honoring a god, a king or a queen, a birthday, a national or religious observance, but here that banquet instead honors the land, its fruits, and the relationships which matter to us.\u00a0It may be \u00a0the central American holiday, one more evocative of an American civil spirituality than the guns and bluster 4th of July or even the more narrow celebrations of Labor Day and Memorial Day. \u00a0There will be no time in our common life when stopping for a day of thanks will be inappropriate.<\/p>\n
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Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Thanksgiving Moon In long ago still Christian days I sought advice from a spiritual director, a Jesuit nun whose name I … Continue reading The Most Unusual Holiday<\/span>