Well, a really good article that papa found today talks about religion and rituals–not just the religious kind that are associated with a god or deity and church-going and such, but other kinds of created rituals that allow groups of people to get together for a single purpose of feeling better about many things and being thankful for many things and just being together to better themselves in some way or see themselves in a new way that is positive and rewarding spiritually.
Mama says that when she wakes up, she feels thankful every day of her life–for papa, for family, for friends, for a beautiful coloring sky or a new moon or the holiday light show being projected on the church of the little town in France where we spend time
or for the beauty of the vegetables in the open markets or for her garden popping out fragrant roses or for seeing a lavender stand with a seller in a warm coat or….well, just little things like those…she’s just thankful a lot, so in that sense, she has rituals all day long with all by herself. But in having thankfulness, mama says, it seems to spill over onto others and she feels tuned in to people in the streets, total strangers even, who just by their being there give her pleasure.
But I understand the man’s point about having those feelings even without religion and feel that there is so much in everyday life to be thankful for, and it doesn’t have to be thanks to any god or ideology but only just a nice uplifting feeling of thanks for being alive and breathing air with others and sharing in others’ thankfulness.
Thankfulnesses? Hmm…nice work.
Especially their thankfulness for having little creatures like me, right? Or those sweet doggies and kitties at Jan’s Funny Farm and others. I KNOW mama and papa are really thankful for ME…
We should always be thankful for each other! What a happy picture of you and your mom.
Well I am thankful for Jan’s Funny Farm and that’s the truth. A sort of mentor to mama…