Like everything else this year, Thanksgiving isn’t the same. I, for instance, am home alone (with my new kitten) working on writing projects. I think we are all missing the traditions of the season including, for many, the offering of a blessing before the meal.
While mostly meal-time blessings are extemporaneous in nature, I did want to point out some wonderful little books that offer ideas for blessings all year round. Among the books I have for this purpose are the following: Saying Grace: Blessings for the Family Table (edited by Sarah McElwain); Bless This Food: ancient & contemporary graces from around the world (by Adrian Butash); The Grateful Table: Blessings, Prayers and Graces for the Daily Meal (by Brenda Knight) and A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meals from Buddha to the Beatles (by M.J. Ryan).
These books are excellent gifts, year-round and are terrific for housewarmings or offerings when invited to one’s home to break bread. Here is but one of scores of poems, written by the U.N. Environmental Sabbath Program:
We join with the earth and with each other
To bring new life to the land
To restore the waters
to refresh the air
We join with the earth and with each other
To renew the forests
To care for the plants
To protect the creatures
We join with the earth and with each other
To celebrate the seas
To rejoice in the sunlight
To sing the song of the stars
We join with the earth and with each other
To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children
We join with the earth and with each other
We join together as many and diverse expressions
of one loving memory: for the healing of the
earth and the renewal of all life.