News from the Center for Inner Healing

Are you looking forward to Thanksgiving? Or have you had enough of it already? Are you looking forward to seeing family members and enjoying a warm dinner together? Does it mean something altogether different to you? Where did Thanksgiving come from? (You remember your Social Studies don't you, about the Pilgrims making it over here, making it through their first year and everything and giving thanks for all of it and inviting the Indians?) To me, it seems like that's all gotten lost with the passage of time, football games and the advent of commercialism. All I see in the papers are advertisements to either stay up all night on Thanksgiving Day to get to the stores by Midnight because they're staying open all night or get up at 5 AM so you can get all your shopping done in one day - the biggest shopping day of the year - the day after Thanksgiving. Somehow they seem to have forgotten Thanksgiving itself.

I, for one, have had enough of all that. I want to do something meaningful this Thanksgiving. I recently saw a motivational tape by Anthony Robbins and he mentioned that when he was a young man, his family was given food at Thanksgiving and he became motivated to do the same for others. Since that time, he formed his own foundation and has fed more than 2 Million people over the years between Thanksgiving and Christmas. His motivation was what was interesting to me since he said that he realized that strangers cared about him by bringing his family food and he wanted to return the gesture. When I first heard the story, I was moved. That's why I'm writing to you now.

My humble suggestion is that each of us can be moved in the same way by caring about someone else, especially someone you don't know - a stranger. Each of you who receives this letter might consider taking the time to care about one other person some time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. It doesn't matter how you do it, but it does matter that you do it. It matters to you. As my good friend Walter Belling has invited me to do, give someone something that you don't necessarily want to give up. Give more than you're comfortable with and see how it feels to you. Of course, now that I've written this and published it to all of you, you can be sure that I'll be doing it this year and every year to come. Not for "Brownie Points", but because I don't be a hypocrite and urge everyone else to do it and then not do it myself. It doesn't have to be a big deal and you don't have to feel guilty if you don't do it. All I ask is that you consider it and then do whatever you feel in your heart. Maria has already started to collect clothing that we will then send to an Indian group that needs warm winter clothing. If you'd like to contribute some used clothing, we'll be happy to package it and send it along to them. If you don't have any clothing to spare, you may want to donate something to any Charitable organization of your choice.

By the way, I've been asked to offer some tapping words to help you through this interesting time of year for those who have different feelings about holiday time.