Fwd: ROOTED IN NATURE: The Spirit of Thanksgiving

[Guest guest]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

Cyndi

 

 

 

 

 

Debra Lynn Dadd

 

 

ROOTED IN NATURE

restoring awareness of nature and our place in it

 

24 November 2009 ~ First Quarter Moon Greetings! Scatter love as you scatter seeds

your store stays undiminished

For love makes love

as seeds make seeds

in a harvest never finished;

Nor look to see how your gift fares—

it is enough to plant it;

Just sow love with a lavish hand

and take harvest for granted.

—Unknown

 

Today I am already starting to prepare for Thanksgiving. I've done my shopping for all the dinner ingredients and am making bits and pieces day by day--carmelizing onions, baking pumpkins, making cornbread, roasting turkey wings to make gravy so there will be plenty. We're having about thirty people over for a potluck dinner out in our organic garden. I can hardly wait! For me, Thanksgiving is about more than a turkey dinner. It's about giving thanks and remembering how Thanksgiving came to be. I love to tell this story again and again, because to me, Thanksgiving is about standing up for spiritual freedom and the power of cooperation. The first Thanksgiving celebration in America is said to have taken place in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts--a three-day feast enjoyed by the Pilgrims and their Native American friends who had helped them survive their first year. The Pilgrims had arrived in America in the winter of 1620, after escaping religious persecution in England. England in the year 1600 was a time of religious upheaval. The common people of England were required to attend the church of the ruler, and did not have the freedom to choose their own religion. Since some rulers were Catholic and others Protestant, the state religion changed with each new ruler. Anyone who objected to the state religion could be arrested, questioned and thrown into prison. They could be tortured in an effort to make them agree with the state church, and executed if they refused to give up their own religious convictions. Many people were imprisoned, tortured and put to death--hanged and quartered, burned at the stake, and crushed under heavy weights. The Pilgrims' first winter in America was devastating and many Pilgrims died. Of the 110 Pilgrims and crew who left England, less that 50 survived. On March 16, 1621, an Indian brave walked into the Plymouth settlement and greeted the Pilgrims in English. His name was Samoset. He had learned English from the captains of fishing boats that had sailed off the coast. After staying the night, Samoset left, and returned with an Indian named Squanto, who had learned English while visiting England. The Pilgrims might not have survived without Squanto's help. Squanto taught the Pilgrims to plant seeds of corn, pumpkins and beans in a mound over a fish for fertilizer. He taught the Pilgrims how to tap the maple trees for sap, and which plants were poisonous or had medicinal powers. He showed them how to find clams and eels in the rivers, how to hunt for deer, bears and turkeys, and where to find nuts and berries of all kinds. The autumn harvest that first year was very successful. The Pilgrims had much to celebrate: they had built homes in the wilderness, raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and had signed a peace treaty with their Indian neighbors that was to last for more than fifty years. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native Americans. For three days the Pilgrims and their Indian guests gorged themselves on venison, roast duck, goose and turkey, clams and other shellfish, eels, corn bread, hasty (cornmeal) pudding, leeks and water-cress and other "sallet herbes." Wild plums and dried berries were dessert, and a wine made of wild grapes was served. The following year the Pilgrims harvest was not as bountiful, as they were still learning to plant the native corn. During the year they had also shared their stored food with newcomers and the Pilgrims ran short of food. The spring and summer of the third year were hot and dry. The crops were dying in the fields. The Pilgrims decided to pray. They assembled one July morning under a hot, clear sky and prayed for nine hours. The next morning, gentle showers began and continued for the next two weeks. That same month, ships arrived with 60 new settlers and an abundance of provisions. In gratitude to God for generously answering their prayers, November 29th of that year was proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. This occasion is believed to be the true beginning of our present day Thanksgiving holiday. What I am most thankful for at Thanksgiving is that small band of Pilgrims, who sailed across a treacherous ocean to an unknown land guided by their own conviction for spiritual freedom and cooperation. They came and flourished by learning from and cooperating with the Native Americans. Because they claimed their spiritual freedom, today we have a place where we have the freedom to claim our own. To comment on this post or read more essays on this blog, visit http://www.dld123.com/abitofnature/...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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