Thanks Giving Prayer

THANKS GIVING PRAYER

Noah benShea

Any day is a good day to be thanks giving. To be thanks giving, because we can. To be thanks giving, because of what we have been given. To be thanks giving, because in giving we are

given.

Giving gives us an open hand. Only an open hand can receive. Receive

this. We are each a container, a messenger, and an instrument. Pass it

along. And say, thanks.

Thank You for watching over me while I slept.

Thank You for watching over me when I couldn’t sleep.

Thank You for listening when I cried out in my sleep.

Thank You for crying with me when I cried in my sleep.

Thank You for Your company when I felt alone.

Thank You for reminding me that I am not alone.

Thank You for holding me and reminding me I am held dear.

Thank You for letting me hear the two doves outside my window that

wake me before I want to get up.

Thank You for letting me hear that often I am not listening.

Thank You for listening to me even when I am not listening.

Thank You for letting me open my eyes.

Thank You for letting me remember how often I have forgotten to open

my eyes.

Thank You for the slice of red sky in the day being born.

Thank You for passing Your Hand in front of me so I could see Your

Hand in all things.

Thank You finding me when I can’t find my way.

Thank You for taking my hand and showing me Your hand on the world.

Thank You for letting me see that every day bears Your fingerprints.

Thank You for letting me see that I am Your fingerprint left on

Adam’s clay.

Thank You for reminding me that we are all Your fingerprints.

Thank You for reminding me that every living fingerprint is a miracle

in that it is both unique and from Your One Hand.

Thank Your for reminding me that Your fingerprints were left on my body and soul out of love and not by mistake.

Thank You for reminding me that this life is given as an engagement

present of mortality’s betrothal to immortality. And of Your love.

Thank You for reminding me to open the gift of this day.

Thank You for reminding me not to presume this day for the one that

came before or that there will be more.

Thank You for reminding me that my life is a spiritual elevator.

Going up?

Thank You for letting me get out of bed this morning.

Thank You for reminding me that any day I get up is a good day.

Thank You for reminding me on any morning I don’t feel so good that I

should nevertheless be grateful because I am still feeling.

Thank You for reminding me of that the next time I think I am feeling

too much. Or too little.

Thank You for feeling for me when I feel nothing.

Thank You for reminding me to trust my feelings and to trust that

they will change.

Thank You for lending me this day.

Thank You for reminding me I can’t pay You back.

Thank You for excusing my debt but not the interest which can only be

paid back by my taking an interest in others.

Thank You for letting me have the courage to face this day.

Thank You for letting me have the courage to face what I first fear.

Thank You for helping me to travel further than my fears.

Thank You reminding me that fear is the pain before the wound.

Thank You reminding me that my fears are often a bigger pain than my

wounds.

Thank You for reminding me that with much of the stuff that’s

bothering me I am the bother.

Thank You for letting me live my life without dread except for the

dread of not having Your company.

Thank You for reminding me that though I may be leaving You are not

going anywhere.

Thank You for reminding me not to leave You.

Thank You for reminding me that on this journey any of us can lose

our baggage.

Thank You for reminding me that on this journey I should lose my

baggage. And not hold the claim checks.

Thank You for reminding me that on this journey much of what we think

to bringis not essential but an open mind and a warm heart is

essential.

Thank You for opening my mind and warming my heart to this

day. And the day after.

Thank You for reminding me that I have enough clothes to be kept warm

and enough to be troubled about what to wear.

Thank you for reminding me that if I worry about what to wear then my

vanity is naked.

Thank You for reminding me that I have enough food to be confused

about what I want to eat and what is eating me. And a hunger that is

often not for food.

Thank You for letting me laugh at myself. And letting me enjoy it.  Thank you reminding me that learning to laugh at myself means my life will never be without amusement.

Thank You for letting me have children to wake up even when they

don’t enjoy it.

Thank You for letting me have children to make breakfast for even

when they don’t like it.

Thank You for letting me remember to remind my children to say

thanks.

Thank You for letting me remember You when my children don’t

appreciate me reminding them.

Thank You for letting me remember not to kiss my children so they

will kiss me back but so they will kiss their children. And their

children’s children.

Thank You for reminding me that it’s okay to hurry but not to be in

a rush.

Thank You for letting me have work to do.

Thank You for reminding me that I am not expected to finish my work

but neither am I excused from it.

Thank You for letting me love the work of Your hands.

Thank You for giving me the strength to deal with the work of finding

my strength.

Thank You for giving me the strength to wrestle with my weaknesses.

Thank You for lending me a Hand when I can’t find the strength.

Thank You for reminding me that when we give someone else a hand

heaven applauds.

Thank You for letting me take pride in what I do and know I couldn’t

do it without You.

Thank You for letting me make mistakes and letting me learn to make

new ones.

Thank You for letting me come home from work and reminding

me not to bring my work home.

Thank You for letting me have a home to come home to.

Thank You for reminding me to remind my children that growing up

means leaving your house so you can come home.

Thank You for reminding me that there is no place like home and no

place is home to someone who is not at home with them selves.

Thank You for reminding me that I’m a man with a lantern going in

search of the light.

Thank You for reminding me that if two of us discover each other’s

blindness it is already growing light.

Thank You for reminding me that in You I am lost and found.

Thank You for finding Your way to my table.

Thank You for sitting at my table.

Thank You for reminding me that even if I am alone at my table I am

not alone.

Thank You for everyone who is sitting at my table.

Thank You for reminding me that this is Your table.

Thank You for reminding me that there is a place for everyone at Your

table.

Thank You for reminding me that if there isn’t a place for everyone

then it is not Your table.

Thank You for reminding us to say thank You.

Thank You for reminding us to be thanks giving.

Thank You for reminding us that any day is a good day to be thanks

giving.

Thank You for this Thanksgiving.

Any day is a good day to be Thanks Giving.

Amen.

“When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,

And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.

What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?

What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?”

– John Greenleaf Whittier

Noah benShea

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