Happy Thanksgiving Day to all of those that celebrate it!
Personally for me Thanksgiving Day is a day for me to focus on what I have to be thankful for, not to focus on the things that I do not have. It is also a time to be with family or friends (if possible) and to share with them the things that they are thankful for too, to spend time together and eat a meal together in unity and togetherness, in love and enjoyment.
Thanksgiving day for me is a day in the here and now, a day for not only giving thanks, but also a day of sharing and giving to others, even if the only thing I can give to some one else is an act of kindness to bring a smile to their face.
This day also has a historical meaning to some that they may not be so thankful for, especially for some Native Americans. There are many "dark" stories and facts that involve death and destruction for some tribes surrounding the "US version" of this holiday from some events that happened many years ago. These things should not be forgotten, but they should also not be the cause for neglecting what we have today that we are or can be thankful for. The past is the past and can not be changed, those at fault back then are dead and gone and we were not there back then either....
Thanksgiving Day to me is not so much a celebration of some US national holiday to celebrate some event in the past clouded with contradictive information about "Pilgrims", it is much more ancient and personal to me. It is much more about coming together and being thankful for the good medicine gained through the previous year. It seems the old ways got a bit twisted, but I still choose to celebrate "Thanksgiving" on the day the majority of the people set aside for it, regardless of the more "modern" cause or reasons behind it. Thanksgiving Day was around a long time before there were ever any "Pilgrims".
I will not forget the darkness of the past that involves the "Pilgrims/US" controversial version of Thanksgiving Day, but I will also not allow the darkness of the past to dictate to me how I am to live in the here and now and cause me to neglect what I am thankful for today.
Thank you Great One for all you have given me and for all you have taken away from me, for without both, give and take, we would not know the difference between the two....and have little or nothing that we could be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving Day everyone!!!!
SilentFeathers 11-23-2011
Some links about the "Origins" of Thanksgiving Day in the America's (and elsewhere).
THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING
by Susan Bates
http://www.manataka.org/page269.html
Thanksgiving - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
The History of the Harvest Festival
Origins of Thanksgiving and Harvest Celebrations Around the World
http://sharonfalsetto.suite101.com/the-history-of-the-harvest-festival-a144496
The Real Thanksgiving
Quoted from: The Hidden History of Massachusetts
http://www.danielnpaul.com/TheRealThanksgiving.html
Ancient origins of Thanksgiving harvests
http://www.examiner.com/religious-spiritual-mysteries-in-national/ancient-origins-of-thanksgiving-harvests
Thanksgiving History and Origin
http://ezinearticles.com/?Thanksgiving-History-and-Origin&id=275228
Thanksgiving's Origins
Ancient Roots in Harvest Festivals
http://christin-aitchison.suite101.com/thanksgivings-origins-a69384
Arkansas Tabby Point
Quartz Crystal Point 0332
Smoky Quartz Crystal Point 0361
Cedar Medicine Flute, key of #G - 0368
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