If you think about it, Thanksgiving is an unusual holiday. The entire nation gathers with family, friends and co-workers for everyone to enjoy basically the same meal. And this commemorates the first European settlers gathering for a harvest celebration with the Native Americans.
I have had the great blessing to participate in Native American Sacred Food Ceremonies. It is a deeply rich and powerful experience, coming together in a sacred way, to share the Sacred Foods, dried meat, berries, corn and water to honor the spirit of each of these foods and appreciate them as gifts from our Mother Earth.
For the earliest settlers life was a daunting and severe struggle on this continent, and it wasn't until they had learned many things from the Native Americans that they were able to survive here.
One of my shaman teachers showed me that the true significance of Thanksgiving is that when the settlers gathered with their Native American friends for a Sacred Ceremony with the Sacred Foods, they were introducing themselves to the Spirits of this land. Until they had done this, they did not have the support of this Land and the Spirits of this Land, to be here.
Thanksgiving honors the settlers' first connection with the Spirits of the North American continent, and were welcomed by those Spirits.
We do not always respect the Earth, and we can do much better. But in many ways, our National Parks, our cultural love of nature, our full use of our great natural resources is a celebration of what the Earth offers to us in America.
Thanksgiving is the tradition of remembering the first communion between the "New Americans" and the ancient, wonderful, powerful, diverse and loving Spirits of this continent.
Many Blessings on this Thanksgiving Day.
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