Thanks Giving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Holidays are always difficult for me to write about, even one as positive as Thanksgiving which celebrates giving as well as gratitude. It is a time of harvest, a recognition of what our harvest has been. It is celebrated at a different time in Canada and not by the same name other places, but almost everyone has a celebration of the harvest.

Thanksgiving morning happens to be a new moon at 8:56 AM PST. If you combine the concept of new moon with thanksgiving, you have a time for a small, personal ritual to recognize what has been good about this year or what we might need to eliminate to make the coming year better. New moons are considered to be times for planting intentions.

By being grateful and stopping to think about what we have in our life for which to be grateful, we are dwelling on the positive. When we think what we wish to draw to ourselves, we enhance that power. What is getting our attention is often what will grow-- positive or negative.

This year with the economic uncertainty worldwide, it's harder than usual for many who are suffering with job losses, investment disappointments, deteriorating home values, health problems, financial as well as environmental concerns, and then where will terrorists strike next?

How can we not ask where are we heading? If even the experts don't know, it's not hard to understand how this could be a difficult Thanksgiving. It is hard to be positive when we have no idea why any of this is happening.

An example: the price of gasoline skyrocketed then dropped like a stone. None of it had anything to do with supply and demand, but rather an investment world that has no regulation and no clue what it's doing. For those who cheer when the prices drop, think about the instability that suggests nobody has been in control; or if they have had control, they must be those who profit from chaos.

My Thanksgiving will be with family and for that I am grateful. I am though thinking about the year ahead and entering a bit of a hunker down and be ready for whatever comes mood. I know it's not good to spend less, as that costs jobs, but how can one not think that this holiday season should have some personal control as to spending? How can one not wonder what is coming?

Are we heading for a full depression? What about global warming, the thousand pound gorilla in this unstable situation? Will jobs be helped by Obama's plan or will that be more money sent out like say in fixing New Orleans that goes to the same old same old and the infrastructure doesn't get rebuilt at all while somebody sucks up the profits? I know it's a new president, but it's the same Congress and the same business climate. What will it take to change it?

It's hard to have faith in any government after the last eight years. One person wrote that we in the United States are like a people who are being liberated and there is some sense of that-- unless you were among those who liked what was happening under Bush and then you are heading into even more uncertain times.

So my personal goals for the coming year are to be grateful for what I have, make the most of whatever opportunities come my way, be frugal, watch what is happening around me, stay out of debt, be loving, and give wherever it can make a difference. Throwing money at problems is not in that category.

(The petroglyph from Moab, Utah is a reminder of how people have always tried to understand their environment, their world, tried to make the most of their situation. There is a strong sense of power in this place. I have been there twice.

The rock is called birthing rock. The mythology is that perhaps women went there when they wanted to become pregnant or were going to have a baby since the figure is birthing something but what is it? Perhaps the symbolism goes beyond pregnancy to what most of us desire to birth-- a better world for all.)