The Reiki Digest for November 22, 2006: Thanksliving

It's Thanksgiving season here in the United States -- although the actual holiday is Thursday, we've been celebrating for more than a week as we travel to visit family in Ohio and Tennessee, passing through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky along the way. Along with cartoon turkeys and cardboard pilgrims, we've noticed lots of thanksgiving messages on businesses, homes, and churches in every town we've passed through. My favorite so far, on a sign outside a church in Kentucky: "It's not just Thanksgiving, it's Thanksliving."

Although the word "gratitude" shows up only in some translations of the Reiki gokai, it is implied in all versions, so giving thanks is more than a once-a-year activity for Reiki practitioners.

This year I have many new reasons to offer thanks, and new people to thank as well. Today, instead of the usual edition of The Reiki Digest, I offer my heartfelt thanks to you, the reader, for the time and attention you have given this fledgling publication this year, as well as thanks in advance for your continued readership. I thank my Reiki teachers, Margaret Ann Case, and Bronwen and Frans Stiene; my classmates for their support; my family; and especially Mom (who just became a Reiki practitioner herself) for her support and for letting me use her computer to post this message.

Of course, only the United States pauses this week for a Thanksgiving holiday, which means it's business as usual for the rest of the world. That means there's a new edition of the weekly Reiki Show podcast from the International House of Reiki, this week featuring an interview with Sister Eileen, a Canadian poet, author, teacher, Catholic nun, and Reiki practitioner. I won't have a chance to listen to it myself until I get home to my broadband connection, but I look forward to it.

Whether or not it's a holiday where you are, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, and a lifetime of happy thanksliving!