Praying Made Easy. 6. Thanksgiving,
A Small Thanksgiving Photo by Yoel Kamara on Unsplash
Happy Thanksgiving. We say it many times, this time each year. And we mean it. No doubt that everyone has much to be thankful for.
So, is there any difficulty?
For me it’s this: wanting to give thanks for every thing; feeling badly that I can’t. My complaint goes like this:
I have so much to be thankful for that I don’t know where to begin. I don’t want to give thanks for just “everything”, but I cannot figure how to give thanks for every thing!
Been working on getting past that for several years. This year I may have found an answer. For me. You’re welcome to try it.
First, it may help to know that every morning after writing in my Prayer Conversations journal, I list my “Thankful Tankful”. I’ve done it for years, yet this year I’ve applied it as preparation for the Big Thanksgiving which happens tomorrow.
You’re welcome to try it.
- Allow your mind to roam randomly over all you are, all you do, and all you have. Let all the ideas and images and items come into your mind.
- Select one item from the list (or pile, if you’re like me!). Is it a thank-you? A Thank-You? A Thank-YOU? A THANK YOU?
- Select another item, from another size category. If the first was a small, pick a medium. You get the idea.
- Rotate through as many individual thanksgivings as you want. Strive for an equal number of Smalls, Mediums, Larges, and X-Larges.
- When you feel like you’re done and you know you still have much more to be thankful for, offer an all-inclusive thanks. Allow it to signify your joy and gratitude for whatever blesses you, any size, any magnitude.
By the way, thank you for opening Prayerful Life.
A Prayer for Full-Scale Thanksgiving
Gracious, Giving God,
with open heart and happy mind
we release ourselves from the constraint
of feeling we must itemize our thanks.
Our gratitude is not what we owe you thanks
in return for all our blessings, though
we were taught it’s the polite thing to say.
We express our thanks to deepen our awareness and appreciation
for the hundreds of small, medium, large and extra-large
wonders in our lives.
We do not worry that the tiny frog resting in our palm
does or does not make as thankful as our house,
our car, our education.
We enjoy thanks to you for the frog, our palm,
and their communion.
So it is. And so we thank you, God.
Love and blessings,
22 November 2017
In: Gratitude, Joy, Prayer, Praying, Thanksgiving · Tagged with: Prayer, praying, Prosperity, thanksgiving
Praying Made Easy. 5. To Complete a Project
To Complete a Project
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
The quest to complete a project can sometimes seem impossible. Or sometimes it can be a piece of cake, easy-breezy. Would that we could turn the first type into the second type.
All sorts of obstacles, distractions, and impediments get between doing the project and cheering, “Yes! It is done!” Not having enough time. Not being sure of the plan. Needing others’ support or help. Lacking confidence in oneself. Procrastinating.
These obstacles just add to the anxiety of not-getting-it-done. They also subtract from the simple joy of doing.
I am on the verge of saying the whole world hasn’t enough fingers to count the times I’ve prayed to the effect of “Please, God, let me finish this project.” More than once I’ve laughed and reminded myself, “God’s not keeping you from getting the project done.”
Lately I’ve discovered this action. It’s yours for the using.
Do. Reward. Do. Reward. Do. Reward.
It’s simple. I don’t think to the end. I avoid focusing on all the things I must do, get, complete in order to finish the project. My attention is on doing the one activity right in front of me. Scheduling a series of meetings. Drafting the project plan. Buying our Christmas tree.
And when that one action is done, I reward myself. Likely not with a day off. A cup of coffee. A look out the window at birds on the feeders. A smile and “good show” for myself.
Then on to the next Do.
A Prayer to Complete a Project
Good Friend God, you bless us
with the opportunity to do what we want,
as we want to do it, and even
when we want to do it.
Such blessings allow us the power to give ourselves
projects. And the power to complete those projects, if and when
we decide to.
The ways we guide ourselves, encourage ourselves,
and reward ourselves are ours to choose.
The ideas, the tactics, come to us from you.
You are the source of our creative power.
Ours are the projects to complete.
Yours is the blessing that guides us to completing them.
And so it is. And so we thank you, Good Friend.
Love and blessings,
14 November 2017
In: Commitment, Energy, God, Prayer, Praying · Tagged with: Energy, God, Grounding, Prayer, praying
Praying Made Easy. 4. To Accept Differences
Differences
by Pana Vasquez on Unsplash
“To accept differences in people is what I like best about my job.” Gram was telling me about her job at Tyrrell Library. “I get to meet and help folks from all walks of life. Their differences make them all interesting.”
Admittedly, Gram worked in a small city in Beaumont, TX. Back then Tyrrell Library served a fairly all-of-a-kind user base: white middle-class educated and employed. Yet her statement means much. To accept the differences.
Not only does the world have more people; it also has less space between us. Not just physical space: figurative space, cyberspace, digital space. We work and play, interact and interchange with more and more people with more and more differences.
Sometimes it’s not easy. Not comfortable. Not welcome.
Whether you actually face such a time or you want to prepare to make that time successful, try this.
In your mind see a legal page with a line draw down the middle. The left side’s heading: Similar. The right side’s heading: Different. Use this page to quantify what similar and what is different between you an “the other”, whoever she or he may be.
Give yourself plenty of time. Fill in each column as exactly, with as much detail as you can. Give yourself plenty of times to return and add to the list.
After each time spent listing, consider
- How much faster can you think of Similar items?
- How much longer is your Similar list?
Our Prayer to Accept Differences
Creative Creator,
I am grateful you made each of us from One
that is one perfect pattern.
And it is wonderful that you freed each of us
to be our Self, to create our identity.
Dealing with, moving beyond
and gladly accepting differences may challenge
any of us at just about any time.
We thank you, Spirit, for the power you give us
to see the limitless gifts and graces we have
in common with one another. The lists of how we are One,
from One, as One, wholly One are endless.
Enjoying that, we can appreciate, welcome, and make the most of
differences that make us unique.
We bless your creativity. We thank you for our differences.
And so it is. And so we let it be. Amen.
Love and blessings,
6 November 2017
In: Peace, Prayer, Praying · Tagged with: Difference, Oneness, praying
Praying Made Easy. 3. To Reach Out for Help
Our difficulty to reach out for help is a measure of our independence. Our ability to reach out for help is a mark of our independence. Both statements can be true.
You may not agree with that, yet I’ll bet we do agree that one time or another–and more often than only one time–every one of us needs some kind of help. And so for all of us, the need to reach out for help is common. Praying is the immediate, ever-ready way to reach out.
Yet for some, refusing to reach out even in prayer is the necessary proof of independence. It’s the I-can-do-it-on-my-own demonstration. For others the freedom to put ego aside and not be ashamed to use praying to ask for help is an easy display.
Truth is, receiving help usually makes the “whatever” either gone or better or manageable. “Thank your for your help” comes easily to our lips, whether to Spirit who has answered our prayer or to the person whose help was the answer itself.
If praying to reach out for help doesn’t always come easy, try this. Imagine yourself in a raft with nothing around you but ocean. You want to get home. Suddenly you see a boat just this side of the horizon. The boat is small enough they will see you if you get their attention. Without hesitation you try to get their attention. You try the obvious ways…you get creative and try other ways. Nothing makes it impossible for you to reach out for help.
Our Prayer to Reach Out for Help
To Reach Out for Help
Photo by Javier Piernagorda on Unsplash
God who is the source of all help
and who directs others to our aid,
we are eager to remember
there is no reason not to ask
when we need help.
We are free and able
to ask one another,
to ask you.
It may be our ego that holds us silent.
Then we may ask your help
in putting our ego aside
that we may know Oneness has no need
for pride.
We were not created to sail on rafts
totally separate from all others.
Our cry for help is surely heard.
We are brought home.
And so it is. And so we thank you, God.
Love and blessings,
30 October 2017
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