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"Hope is a function of struggle."
~Brené Brown

"For the wide sky and the blessed sun, for the salt sea and the running water, we thank you for our senses..." ~Walter Rauschenbusch from http://bit.ly/shMlch photo by Brian AuerWinter is now upon us in the Midwest. The temperature is dipping into the single digits and the winds are gusting steadily. On this Thanksgiving weekend here in the States, these beginning lines from Walter Rauschenbusch's gorgeous family prayer, now more than a century old, call us to pay attention and be grateful:

For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendor of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty...

This has me wondering about others' ways of giving thanks.

"We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts." ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, photo by Alexa ClarkDo you have a special prayer or ritual? Drop me a line at tgilliss@onbeing.

"We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's words and Alexa Clark's photo were shared by thousands of our friends on Instagram, Tumblr, and Faceboook too.

In June, we converted our static HTML website to Drupal. Technical jargon aside, one of the positive outcomes of all this work was liberating ThayThich Nhat Hanh's dharma talk from its RealAudio shackles. As Krista noted:

Sink into this. Thich Nhat Hanh morning dharma talk on mindfulness / anger / the child within. Thx @trentgilliss.

Now you can listen to the Buddhist Zen master's full two-hour talk he presented in 2003 during a meditation session at The Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin during our radio pilgrimage.

Due to the long holiday weekend, this week's recap is a bit abbreviated. Contact us any way you like: contact us on our website, share your suggestions and critiques on Facebook or Twitter (@beingtweets).

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2 Comments

brilliant good use of technology...spent two summers w/ Thich Nhat Hanh 1999 and 2001 in France, though nothing can replace direct contact and transmission, to make available his wisdom here is to let his gentle tonality flow from these speakers on this phone, in this moment, which normally leaves me with distracted attention and sense of urgency, now allows instead for me to have been re-membered into what is essential..thank you On Being and Dear Thay, Diane Renz, LPC

I give thanks for you, your vision and your inspiring show which has become an essential part of my life.