22,413,578 members doing good!
about our ads
share your passions, stories, inspirations, and more
The Spiritual Significance of Gratitude and Thanksgiving
Nov 26, 2007
The following article by Owen Waters is reprinted with permission from InfiniteBeing.com

Article: Gratitude and Thanksgiving‏
From:Infinite Being (News@InfiniteBeing.com)
Sent:Sun 11/25/07 3:23 AM
Reply-to:News@InfiniteBeing.com
To: mhbj8@hotmail.com
Gratitude and Thanksgiving
by Owen Waters
 
Gratitude is a key that opens the door to the flow of
unconditional love through your heart. The heartfelt
expression of gratitude, either in words or in thought, focuses on the plenty that you have rather than anything that may be missing in your life.
 
The traditional American holiday of Thanksgiving dates back to the early pilgrims in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts in 1621. As pilgrims, they were inclined to fast and pray for all the things that they desperately needed.
 
When Founding Father Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) wrote of those times, he understood the great value of gratitude. He said:
 
"There is a tradition that in the planting of New England, the first settlers met with many difficulties and hardships, as is generally the case when a civilized people attempt to establish themselves in a wilderness country. Being so piously disposed, they sought relief from heaven by laying their wants and distresses before the Lord in frequent set days of fasting and prayer."
 
All that praying and fasting, he said, made them "gloomy and discontented." Happily, he went on, a farmer "of plain sense" suggested to the Pilgrim Assembly that instead of continuing to bother the Lord with their complaints and requests, they for once thank Him for the blessings they had been given. For although times were still hard, things were getting better.
 
Instead of a fast, the farmer suggested, it would be more fitting to proclaim a day of thanksgiving. His advice was heeded, and "from that day to this," as Franklin said, we have "every year observed [these] circumstances of public felicity."
 
In the case of the pilgrims, gratitude opened them up to receiving ever more of the blessings of nature. Prior to that, their want had been closing down the natural flow of abundance and making their circumstances seem even harder than they were.
 
Giving thanks is the expression of gratitude, and gratitude is one of the most beautiful secrets in spiritual life.
 
Gratitude is a form of love, and love is something which flows from the Creator of the universe through all forms of life and manifestation. Without love, life in the universe cannot exist. Love is the universal force of preservation which holds creation in manifestation.
 
 
The Nature of Love
 
Love is as natural as the universe. By design, there is a tension between the forces of creation and universal love. It is this tension which controls the size of the universe, holding it within its envelope. It is this tension which regulates the size of an electron's orbit around a nucleus.
Love is the force which retains electrons in their orbits, making atoms possible and the existence of life as we know it.
 
You can block love, or you can allow it to flow naturally through you. Falling in love with another person is an allowance of the flow of love through your heart. In a world where everything has the appearance of separateness, it is a surrender to the underlying unity of all life. It is a place of apparent vulnerability, a willingness to take the risk that separation will once again return if that love is later lost.
 
When you allow your heart to open to the universe's flow of love, gratitude comes with that flow. Gratitude for being alive, for just existing, for just being in the flow of the adventure of life. Gratitude for the Sun that gives us life. Gratitude for the Earth that gives us our home in the cosmos. Gratitude for the people that you love, and for those who share your journey through life.
 
Gratitude flows unimpeded from an open heart. When you allow it, it flows as freely as the sunshine, unobstructed by judgments or conditions.
 
 
*If you enjoyed today's article, forward it to a friend! They will appreciate your thoughtfulness.
 
 
This article was written by Owen Waters, author of
"The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness"
 
Available in hardcover or via immediate download at:
 
http://www.infinitebeing.com/theshift
 
AOL users: http://www.infinitebeing.com/theshift"> Click here for The Shift.
 
 
The Infinite Being newsletter brings you spiritual insights for the New Awareness each Sunday at your request from Infinite Being Publishing LLC, 73 Greentree Dr #54, Dover DE 19904, USA, 302-269-3852.
 

 
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted: Nov 26, 2007 4:24am

 
 
 
Content and comments expressed here are the opinions of Care2 users and not necessarily that of Care2.com or its affiliates.

Author

Barry H.
male, age 55, single
Orono, ME, USA
Shares by Type:
All (18) | Blog (11) | Alert (4) | Tribute (1) | Message (2)

Showing shares tagged with: waters [show all]
ads keep care2 free
SHARES FROM BARRY'S NETWORK
May
22
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Some Spanish lessons (algunas lecciones de Español)Don't worry, be happy! (No te preocupes, se feliz!)Hugs and blessings, (abrazos y bendiciones)Angeles
May
18
(0 comments  |  discussions )
The sun in the North is a temporary guestWho brings with him much warmth and light when he comesFor a few precious months every year he keepsUs company through night and day He makes the trees green, he makes flowers bloomHe makes the birds sing, and ...
May
14
(0 comments  |  discussions )
KDC Solar and North Jersey Media Group Cut Ribbon on Large Solar Facilityby Staff WritersBedminster NJ (SPX) May 10, 2013The solar operation will cover more than 60 percent of the power needs at North Jersey Media Group's printing plant. KDC Sol...
May
11
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Guru Nanak's Chart of the Heavens -- The Five Khands -- New Blog Entry @ Blogger: http://Sant MatRadhasoami.Blogspot.co m/2013/05/guru-nanak-char t-of-heavens-five-khands. html @ WordPress: http://Sa ntMatRadhasoami.WordPress .com/2013/05...
May
9
(1 comments  |  discussions )
R.I.P. Dear Windstar....You are no longer in pain...Wait for me my Bigstar...So we can cross over Rainbow BridgeTogether.
(0 comments  |  discussions )
The largest genocide in human history happened where? Most people would answer Germany, and the Jewish Holocaust. Actually though, the largest genocide happened in the USA, with the native American Indians, with estimates of 19 million to 100 millio...
May
8
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Ever since I saw that horrific pic of the bricks pelting ''Windstar'' the beautiful white horse, I can't get it out of my mind. To think a group of people--or maybe it was an individual!--would actually do something like that totally blows my min...
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Official Nuclear Radiation Study; Tokyo University Hayno, R.S., et al (2013) Internal Radiocesium Contamination of Adults and Children 7 to 20 Months After the Fukushima NPP Accident as Measured by Extensive Whole-Body-Counter Surveys, Proc. Jpn....
(0 comments  |  discussions )
+++  In these times of uncertainty, chaos and pain,  you can choose to only rely upon yourselves  - face the music and do as best as you can,  with whatever ''concrete means'' you have at your disposal -  or  you can ch...
May
6
(0 comments  |  0 discussions )
Toxic radiation accumulates in water supplies after nuclear accidents. Radiation bioconcentrates in fish that live in fresh water and salt water. Runoff of fresh water from land which has been contaminated ends up contaminating oceans, and salt wate...

Copyright © 2013 Care2.com, inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved