BEING THANKFUL

   Thanksgiving is coming and one begins to think about the things for which we are grateful and how we can express it. Being thankful for our food and blessing it with a prayer before we eat has been a time-honored tradition in every country around the world and in all religions. However, in the last 20 years in America and in other countries it is losing its importance. Maybe it is because we eat so many meals in restaurants and we are embarrassed to show our private ritual in front of strangers who might not share our ways. Maybe it is because we eat so many meals on the run and thereby we forget in the haste. Maybe the tradition was a meaningless one, which we carried on only at the holiday times with the extended family, and now that everyone has moved away from the homestead, the force, which brought prayer, has dissipated. May I venture to say, maybe it is because we have lost our connection to that which is greater than ourselves, the God, the Spirit, the Creator, the energy that permeates all things, with which all ancient people communed intimately.

 

  I came from a family of tradition. We always began our evening meal with our usual blessing. Only then, did we pass the food, serve it and eat it, along with conversation about our lives and the world. No one rose from the table until our father said, “Let’s pray.” Then we said another long honored verse, ”Oh give thanks unto the Lord for He is good and his mercy endures forever. Amen.” Only then did we begin to clear the dishes away and go about our evening tasks. Sometimes we lingered for additional conversation, but it would not have been complete without the closing prayer. As the folks grew older and we lingered more, we would all forget if we had prayed but then we agreed to pray again because twice was better than not at all.

  Now in my own life we continue the tradition of beginning our meal with prayer. We often forget the closing prayer as some wander off amidst other activities or work, which calls, but the opening prayer is steadfast. We even manage to say it in a crowded restaurant quietly together or with bowed heads silently to ourselves. 

  Truly, it is more than a tradition. Something greater is taking place. This is a moment of quiet, of reflection, of gratefulness.

  The food we eat we often take for granted. Our supermarkets are abundantly full of food from all around the world. We have plenty. We do not have to work in the fields or wonder if it will rain or be the right temperature for food to grow. Some farmer somewhere does that for us. We are separate from the miracle of the seed in the earth and its sprouting and growth. For many, a trip to the farm where food is grown is a revelation of the mystery of food. On a field trip once, a parent told me it was the first time they had ever picked food from its source. She stood in awe of the experience.

   Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, wrote about the importance of children being able to feel veneration for another person, so when they grow up they feel happy when they are able to feel veneration for other things. This later transforms itself into a veneration for truth and knowledge.  If you have ever met a person in the last years of their life and you experience what a blessing they are to know, then that person when they were a child experienced reverence for someone or something greater than themselves. How do we give this feeling of reverence to our children so they can be a blessing to the generations to come?

">So That You May Be One, Joa Bolendas tells of seeing the workings of the greater spirit behind the priest or minister in a church. She describes the light of that being pouring down upon the officiator.  When we bless our food, we are calling upon the greater spirit to live in our food and not only nourish our body but our soul and spirit too. If you can truly live in this image then your young child will feel it too. You do not need to explain it, just live in it.

 If you imagine all those who worked to bring this meal to you, the farmer, the truck driver, the store worker, the cashier, your spouse, then this image, too, will guide you to deeper levels of thankfulness. As children grow older, perhaps 11 or 12, a practice could be made of occasionally acknowledging all who labored for your meal.

  

  The feeling of reverence is becoming more and more difficult to experience in the time in which we live. Everyone and everything is criticized. Even if the accuser does not see the dark side, they often speculate and insinuate its presence anyway. If the young child before age 9 or 10 is exposed to this criticism and mistrust of the good things and people then they have no hope or vision for the greater future good. This we cannot afford for our children to lose.

Dr. Masaru Emoto, of Japan, has proven the power of words through his work with water. He fills bottles of water, exposes them to words, music, or prayer, and then freezes them. He photographs the resulting crystals. The frozen crystals reflect the words or sounds by becoming “ugly” or “beautiful”. There is a clear difference between war and Beethoven. He also said that a group who held hands in prayer forms lovelier crystals than one who just held hands. He shows us through science that even on a molecular level matter is affected by thought and words.

  We can support and kindle reverence in the child by stopping to watch a remarkable sunset or an ant building its home or a silent thank you before a meal or a true word of appreciation for someone who you admire. Or dare I say, we could even say a word of thanks for someone who has done us a “disservice” in our life, as one day we will know how that act led us to an important change of which we could not have arrived had they not inflicted us with their deed.  

  It is not a small gift you are giving by showing reverence to someone or something; it is a gift, which will deeply live in the child’s soul. The first nine years are the time when the child imitates everyone in his or her environment. From this, they develop their whole being, even down to their physical organs.

Reverence is one of those soul foods, which our children desperately need. It is as important as the good organic food we eat. The gift of reverence is a gift for a lifetime.

www.youtube.com/ Positive & Negative Energy Effects on Water

References: So That You May Be One, Joa Bolendas, Lindisfarne Books, Hudson, N.Y.1997

Knowledge Of the Higher Worlds , Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophic Press, 1947

The Hidden Messages in Water, Masaru Emoto, Beyond Words Publishing, 2004