For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
On thinking about Thanksgiving Day, a menu has been decided, a table setting arranged based on who and how many will be in attendance, the groceries secured, a plan of action set down for the day before and the day of the Feast.
It occurs to me that one day a year is set aside for a National day of giving thanks, while just about every other Holiday (perhaps excepting Easter to some degree) has been co-opted by the forces of marketing and consumerism. Thus, we find ourselves at an odd crossroads in our evolution as a culture...
...by having the strange juxtaposition of a day of thanksgiving quickly followed by the sinister-named "Black Friday" when deal-seeking, money-waving, mania-maddened multitudes mob merchandisers (Ahhh...how I love alliteration!).
Okay, I realize the name, "Black Friday" arises out of the idea that rampant and collective consumerism on this day will put businesses in the "black ink" column. At least that's the idea.
Still, the concept that frenzied acquisition follows immediately upon the heels of gratitude and thanksgiving can only be the wayward "child" of Capitalism. Not that Capitalism is a bad thing...unless it becomes the "only" thing.
Capitalism becomes questionable when it subsumes, consumes, and ideates a society to the exclusion of the "un-dollar-able" values to be found within the heart and the soul of a people and their society.
For me Black Friday has become - not a time to shop - but a time to retreat from shopping. Instead, I light the candles, turn on quiet music, pick up the journal and pen, and make a cozy cup of herbal tea. I make myself comfortable and with pen in hand list all that I am grateful for over the past year.
I thank the God of my Heart for abundance, health, family, friends, lessons learned (from the joyful to the painful), and retreat for a time from the noise, expectations, seduction, chaos, glitz (and the false promises that stuff will make me happy and fulfilled) and simply sit quietly within that sublime inner space where head and heart meet and commune with Soul.
I wish everyone all of the love, delight, communion with others, and thank-fullness, abundance and feasting that Thanksgiving Day offers. And, safety, sanity, and success if you choose to join the Black Friday fray...and of course, blessings, and abundance throughout the Holiday Season to come!
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