The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will start soon (that link is for streaming video should you want to watch it on-line). After I post this I’m going to sit down with a cup of coffee and watch it not only for itself, but in memory of my dad.

I don’t remember how old I was when he first started waking me up to see the parade. I would have to do some research to see when it was first broadcast. I think he brough home our first black and white television around 1954. 

Yet the clearest memory I have of my dad waking me up to watch the parade was in 1961. We had a color television by then. We sat on the couch together and I got to snuggle next to him, which was rare because he worked the night shift and we seldom watched television together. 

Like so many men of his age who had been through WWII, my dad wasn’t a demonstrative man. Yet when we watched the parade, he’d put his arm around my shoulders and it was the best feeling in the world. I felt so safe and at peace.  So this post is for my dad, and for every dad who wakes his kid up and makes sure he or she doesn’t miss the parade.

Thanksgiving: A Harvest Festival

In all the focus on getting dinner on the table, we may forget that it is a day for more than cursory “grace” at the table. We may forget that Thanksgiving is a day to meditate on all we have received throughout our lives. We may forget to give profound thanks for our survival.

Yet, as a harvest festival, Thanksgiving is not just about having a good meal. Although eating is both necessary and pleasurable, this holiday we have named Thanksgiving is more about awareness, gratitude and celebration.  

The earth has nourished us with her bounty and God has guided us to a place and a time in which food is so plentiful. We are so blessed in so many ways. Our worst day in North America is better than the best day in dozens of Third World countries in which good and decent people are not surviving, but are subject to brutality and starvation.

This is a day in which to thank God for the blessings we have received while living on this earth, and to thank the earth herself for nourishing us with her bounty. It is a time to utter a prayer for thanks for our farmers and to the very plants for growing.

Let us take nothing for granted. Everything that supports us is a gift. Bless it all and connect with God and the gratitude in your heart.

A Thanksgiving Day Prayer

Dear God,

Thank You that we are here,
able to partake in this wonderful day.

Thank You for our community
and our beloved friends.

Bless the many wonderful people in the world
who are striving to be their best.

Thank You for our nation
which provides us with opportunities.

Thank You for this beautiful planet
and bless her mightily,
For she is a gem
and we are one with her.

Thank you for the harvest you have given us
And the sumptuous food you provide.

Thank You for our health,
and the amazing wonders
of modern medicine.

We know not everyone has access to these gifts.

Thank You for hot and cold running water
and safe drinking water.

So many people in the world
do without these blessings
that we too often take for granted.

Thank you for our home,
its comforts, warmth and luxuries.

Thank You for family, our spouses, our children
and everyone we love.

Thank You for our work
which provides abundantly for our needs.

Thank You for all that we are,
all that we have,
and all we can give.

Thank You for awareness
of who we are
and what we are here to do.

Bless those who are without family,
who are suffering or in pain.

Make us vehicles of Your Grace
and show us where we are needed.

Make us better, more giving
and more loving people tomorrow
than we were yesterday.

Guide us in doing every small thing with love.

You are the Beginning and End,
the Alpha and Omega of our beings.

Every cell in our bodies
leaps in joy for you
and in the pleasure
of this wonderful day.

Thank You.
Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving ~