Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving is especially poignant for our family this year, as we face some unexpected and devastating news. We are deeply grateful for our friends near and far who have circled the wagons for us during this difficult time. Your love keeps us strong.

In what has become a Thanksgiving tradition here on my blog, I am sharing this beautiful ancient piece of writing. I am not a religious person but this speaks to my values and my vision for how to live my life.  Some anonymous soul in the 1600's recorded these thoughts for posterity so that someday we could read them on this, the most special of days.

Harvest Prayer

(17th Century Anonymous Sermon)

Please be gentle with yourself and others. 

We are all children of chance 

And none can say why some fields blossom 

While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun. 

Take hope that your season will come. 

Share the joy of those whose season is at hand. 

Care for those around you. 

Look past your differences. 

Their dreams are no less than yours, 

Their choices in life no more easily made. 

And give. 

Give in any way you can. 

Give in every way you can. 

Give whatever you possess. 

Give from your heart. 

To give is to love,

To withhold is to wither. 

Care less for the size of your harvest

 than for how it is shared, 

And your life will have meaning 

And your heart will have peace.

***

Happy Thanksgiving Canadian Friends!