Thanksgiving Shmanksgiving
Historically, Thanksgiving has been my least favorite holiday. An entire Holiday spent around food, gluttony, and a football game. Ugh…I typically spend about a week preparing for all the “festivities,” and generally miss all the good stuff because I am focused on all the other stuff. Not this year, though. This year I had an experience that changed my whole perspective on Thanksgiving.
It’s Thanksgiving Day, and I am getting ready for my family to arrive. I am preparing to set the table and iron the napkins and tablecloths, so they look nice after spending the last year tucked away in a cabinet above my dryer.
The mundane and repetitive motion of the slow and steady back and-forth movements of ironing a giant rectangular piece of fabric along with the Allman Brothers singing, “Soulshine…it’s better than sunshine, it’s better than moonshine, damn sure better than rain…”, take my soul into its sway, and my mind is quick to follow. They bring me down a dreamy road as I think about my children, my sister, my two nephews, my parents, and all the other people in my life that I love, and I start singing to God: Out loud, out of tune, and straight from the heart! My entire being became the love I was thinking and singing about, and I could feel myself buzzing with the emotion: Strong and solid, yet light and playful, filled with joy and a sense of peace that literally brought tears to my eyes.
The song finished playing and I finished ironing at the same time. I took the tablecloth from the ironing board with the flourish of a magician who had just revealed the most amazing trick, and giggled a bit at my own drama as I flicked the cloth into the air, “Ta-da”! As I was smoothing the linen out on the table, I became intently aware of my hands and how they were pulsating with the love that I was feeling in my heart. The tablecloth was picking up my vibration and it began to glow. “Must be my eyes,” I thought and wiped the remnants of the tears that had begun to pool during my little karaoke session with myself and looked again. It was still there.
“Okay, let’s see if what I’m seeing is real,” I thought and started to play with it. It was as if it was magnetized to and by the palms of my hands. I expanded it to encase the table and then pulled it out to surround my entire house. I could see it sparkle and glitter and my heart was beating like crazy with the excitement of being able to see it so clearly.
“How cool is that?!” I screamed to myself. I should call my friend Dave and tell him what just happened,” but instead of calling my friend, I found the voice in my head saying, “Come Lord Jesus – Brother - come and join me at this table. I prepared it with love, and I would like to share it with you. I will set you a place”.
He laughs as he appears, “Why so formal”?
“I got lost in the reverie – sorry … check this out,” and I showed him what I could do.
“Yeah, that always happens when you do things from the heart. Pretty cool when you can actually see it, isn’t it?!”
I looked down again at the glowing tablecloth and realized that I had done this. I created this place of love that I wanted to share with EVERYONE! At the same time the thought crossed my mind, he replied, “Of course you created it, and I would be honored to join you”.
I rolled my eyes, “Wanna help me get some things ready,” I asked.
“Sure.”
After we finished setting the table, putting out the crayons and games, and putting the turkey in to roast, we sat down for a cup of coffee. “Wow, I said, how come I haven’t been able to see the energy before? I have been able to feel it for many years now, I was just never able to see it”.
“It happens,” he said, “you get so busy doing all the stuff that you don’t see what you are actually creating”!
“I saw it today though. Why today?”
“Because you were in a place of pure love.”
“I see that!”
He laughs and whispers, “…you ain’t seen nothin’ yet…”. He leans back in the chair like he is getting ready to watch a movie, and just as I am about to ask him about it, I am acutely aware of all the abundance that surrounds me. I am standing smack dab in the middle of all the love, compassion, empathy, joy, happiness, and immense feelings of peace and contentment that are swirling around and through me, connecting millions of pictures that show how these things have and are appearing in my life. Then as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone – he was gone, and I was sitting at my kitchen table, coffee cup in hand with a huge smile on my face.
As I am left alone basking in the afterglow of what just happened, I wonder what’s in store for me today. I’m really not sure because I don’t have any plans, but I do know that whatever happens, it’s going to be filled with abundance. I know this because it already is. I know it’s there because I felt it, and then I saw it.
Maybe Thanksgiving isn’t so bad after all…
Peace.
