This idea seems to be catching on with a number of my friends. Which is great because I might have forgotten about it otherwise! I’ll be looking for my jar tomorrow. Wanna join me?
A year of gratitude
Living gratefully
I don’t “get” to really write because it’s so late, so I’ll share this incredibly lovely video instead. It’s narrated by Brother David Steindl-Rast, who I feel is a real discovery; also happy to have discovered his Network for Grateful Living.
Thanksgiving before Christmas
Back in October — irritated by my first sighting of Christmas merchandise, weeks before Halloween even(!) — I was reminded of a Sunday talk I heard at my Unity church in San Francisco, way back in the early 1990’s.
The minister talked about how much she appreciated the fact that Nordstrom made a point of waiting until after Thanksgiving to put up their store Christmas tree and other decorations. As she pointed out, Thanksgiving (gratitude) comes before Christmas (receiving).
The importance of her insight has stayed with me over the decades: forgetting or belittling the gratitude part and becoming overly focused on the receiving (or getting) part is a recipe for disaster — for us as individuals and also as a society.
We see it happening a little bit more every year, as the Christmas decorations go up earlier and earlier in order to encourage people to buy more, buy sooner, buy faster! Get, get, get! But what about first slowing down and remembering to give thanks for what you’ve already got?
I’m not big on shopping; in fact, I’m pretty sure the last time I was in a Nordstrom was to play a gig back in my days as a freelance flutist. But if I were to need to shop in a department store, I would want to give Nordstrom my business, because I so very much appreciate that they’re still sticking to their guns all these years later!
I googled it because I was curious and discovered that in its more than 100-year history, Nordstrom has never decorated before Thanksgiving. And the store has received widespread support on social media about this, with consumers praising Nordstrom for fighting the “Christmas creep.”
Now that’s something I can heartily endorse!
Still no power
I was able to get yesterday’s post written before leaving work at the end of the day, but no such luck today. This makes the third full day of our power outage. It’s been quite the wake-up call, although it could certainly have been much, much worse!
Feeling ever more grateful for community…
Ananda’s 100th
The Living Discipleship “Gratitude Event” was today, but I’m the one who ended up filled to overflowing with a sense of deep gratitude…
The event began with some songs (Ramesha and I had been invited to join in the singing), followed by a “skit”, then concluding with a few more songs. I have to write “skit” in quotes because it was way, way beyond any skit I’ve ever seen!
The setting of the short play was the meditation retreat in July of 2069, just after Ananda’s 100th anniversary! The narrators were two of the present day Living Disciples who were welcoming a new crop of 2069 Living Disciples and reflecting on their own experience of jumping into Living Discipleship immediately after the 50th anniversary–“fifty years ago!”, as one of them says.
They then proceeded to trace the evolution of our path, starting with Arjuna choosing Krishna before the battle of Kurukshetra. Briefly, yet powerfully, they acted out the pivotal moments between Jesus and Babaji; Babaji and Lahiri; Yukteswar at the Kumbha Mela; Yogananda meeting Sri Yukteswar; Kriyananda meeting Yogananda; and finishing up with our very own Jyotish meeting Swami Kriyananda and volunteering to help him with the “project” that eventually became Ananda.
It was sweet, devotional, funny, inspiring, and deeply moving.
The first song after the skit was O Master, which wasn’t easy to sing because I was already moved almost to tears. I held it together for Cloisters and Lord, May We Serve You. But then everyone stood and we sang Thy Light Within Us Shining…and I pretty much lost it.
I mean, there we were in the Temple of Leaves, where Swamiji started it all; we’re still feeling the incredible bliss of the 50th anniversary celebrations; and then (somewhat miraculously) through the power of today’s Living Discipleship presentation, I felt as though I was present at Ananda’s 100th anniversary. It felt so real; the blessings were palpable.
Words really can’t convey what a gift this was. Thank you, thank you to each and every one of the great souls who manifested this event.