29     GRATITUDE  

KEY CONCEPTS:  Thanksgiving, sharing, charity, donations, giving back, paying it forward, potlatch.

MESSAGE:  Wild turkeys are native to North America and have long served us as a vital food source. This turkey sits amidst harvest bounty, showcasing an abundant cornucopia.  He knows we can all spare something to help someone less fortunate.  When Gratitude arrives in your reading, invite hungry neighbors to your banquet: it’s one way to kindle the joy of contribution.  If someone’s been kind to you, could you pay it forward?   Gratitude opens a channel of goodwill that lets spiritual wealth circulate.

The Thanksgiving holiday originated to offer gratitude to Spirit for blessings of the harvest; this autumnal tradition exists throughout the world in various forms.  From the Pacific Northwest comes the concept of “potlatch;” these traditional giveaway ceremonies involve extreme gifting to redistribute amassed wealth.  Status isn’t determined by what you accumulate but by how much you can give to others. These harvest feast days foster egalitarian sharing of hospitality, and ensure that no community member hoards wealth while others are hungry. To withhold among these folk would not just seem unwise, but downright crazy.

Prosperity circulates in accord with Divine principle, which regularly redistributes bounty. In the natural world predators and decomposition shift fortunes day to day, driving energy flow and regulating population dynamics.  This sacred mechanism maintains both a cosmic balance and a social one.  By sharing what you have, you express thanks uplifting your entire community.  Appreciation opens pathways to higher energies; when you unlock Infinite Gratitude, you reap Divine rewards.  Withholding only punishes oneself:  each of us harvests precisely the crop we’ve planted. 

Sowing spiritual seeds reaps everlasting harvest.  Each word or deed plants bumper crops in acreage yet unknown.  The answer lies in rooting gratitude not in what you see, but in the invisible realm of inexhaustible possibility.  If you’re appreciative of only what you can see, you’re focused on the crumbs underneath the table, not the feast. And when you seek your rewards from humans, you’re chasing a wild goose…which is especially nonproductive if you’re serving turkey.  Convey cheery thanks aloud to every visible source of help, but silently and secretly direct gratitude solely to your Source.  The best we can hope for in life is to appreciate what we have while we have it.

RELATED SITES: TURKEY TRACKS, GIRARD, IL; MANY RESTAURANTS ON 66 OFFER SPECIAL THANKSGIVING MEALS IF YOU DO A WEB SEARCH NEAR THE HOLIDAY.