10. Gratitude
Joyful Play is Worship
The world was created in love, and gratitude is the oil that greases the wheels and the fuel to make it move. Gratitude is the wind in the sails of Creation. It's love in action. It's acknowledging the loving gifts we have received.
Everything we do in joy is gratitude to Creation. In moments when we recognize joy, we can give back to Beloved Presence by purposefully holding the thought of Them with the joy. Holding anything in your mind with joy is Worship at it's highest expression.
Worship is recognizing value and worth and being glad that it exists. Worship is recognizing the Being-ness of Beloved Presence in all aspects of Creation.
Worship has been misunderstood.
Some religions would tell us what we can and cannot worship. Worthy worship is only what they say and how they say it should occur and worship for something else is 'bad'. Some religions forbid worship for anything on the material plane. I understand not holding up a singular 'thing' as Creation - no one thing is all of Creator, but all of Creation is within Creator, so everything is worthy of worship.
“Holiness = Whole-i-ness”
Everything that the Universe made is worthy and deserving of worship. This is not idolatry, it is recognizing the holiness (whole-i-ness) of existence. The error is excluding everything else when we say "this ONE thing is worthy of worship". This is holy and worthy - this is not. Exclusion and separation in any form is always a red flag that we've made a mistake.
Separation isn't truth and separation of 'holiness' is dangerous.
Separating and excluding in the name of holiness allows us to justify doing terrible things to one another and to the whole planet under the banner of 'holy' righteousness. If we believe that the material world is tainted or a temptation, we can destroy it without conscience and feel righteous for doing so.
If we believe that our salvation lies in some different place, some heaven far away from Earth, then we can take and consume and hasten the destruction of the planet because we think we're going to be rewarded with some other, better, whole and complete world. If we believe that the Plants and Animals and all the beings of the Earth are somehow outside of Beloved Presence, then we have no problem treating them like consumable, disposable “things”.
We treat the planet and all life here as expendable extras. We've all done it. It's okay. We can do better.
Our experience of life expands and changes when we include everything within Creation. Every single being in existence is valuable and worthy because it exists. Nothing exists outside of Creation, so nothing exists that isn't valued and holy. We change our perspective of life when we approach the world knowing everything is a person, everything is a being and everything is Beloved Presence.
How could we not be grateful for every life given that goes into our mouths to sustain us? Every morsel is a life given for us. How can we not be grateful for that gift? Sometimes we're not. Its okay. We can do better today.
We make an error in worship when we are unwilling to give away that which we worship.
There is nothing about money, status or power that makes them unholy. They are tools and perceptions of value. The question is, what do we do with them and are we willing to give them away?
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest practiced the Potlatch. This sacred event was a gift-giving and feast practice that was the foundation of their government, economic and international culture.
Everyone gave what they could to others.
There was status in giving as much as you had and there was a balanced redistribution of goods so that everyone came away richer than when they arrived. Interestingly, the Potlatch was criminalized by the government of Canada until 1951. The western mind seemed incapable of understanding the value of redistribution of wealth and communal resource management agreements.
“It’s sad that the government would criminalize a way of life that was based; not on competition and one single winner above all, but on gratitude, reciprocity and sharing.”
When we hoard what we value - wealth, status, knowledge... we are not worshipping Creation’s gifts. Hoarding is idolatry and is the basis of scarcity. What we share grows. What we give away is what we keep.
Some religions call it idolatry when we worship a thing as if it were Creation. The truth is that all things are of Creation and no thing excludes Creation so everything that exists can be worshipped and praised as divine.
Some organized religions do not want for us to see divinity in being alive on Earth.
They want us focused on an afterlife for our reward.
They explain away suffering and injustice and inequality on Earth as punishment or an ordeal to harden faith in order to be worthy of a heavenly next life. They have focused worship on a divine father figure that fucked off out of the world a long ass time ago and stopped communicating with his children directly - except for one “special” top dude who communicates with god for everyone.
When we separate our world from heaven, we excuse our ways of dishonouring the land and the Animals and our Kin-dom right here, right now.
When heaven and divinity are some other place at some other time, we can ignore our broken hearts, and our savage treatment of the natural world, and the unnecessary suffering, and the unbridled greed, and the taking and the ravaging, and the thoughtless consumption of every gift the Earth has ever given us. When we deny the Creator's presence on our Earth, in our world, right here, right now, we consume without gratitude and we destroy ourselves and everything we love.
Where else is there?
There is no where else. There is no other time, there is no other place that is different than right here, right now. All of the world is valuable and divine and worthy of worship.
All of it. No exceptions.
The Practice
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This the Haudenosaunee (Ho-di-no-SHOW-nee) Thanksgiving Address - Greetings to the Natural World. It is also known as The Words Before All Else because giving gratitude for the gifts of life is the first act of reciprocity in a loving world.
Ideally, this prayer is said first thing in the morning and before bed. It is said before ceremonies and assemblies and especially before meetings to decide on projects and group direction - speaking these words together places us as human beings within the structure of life and unites our minds to make decisions that benefit the whole and result in wins for everyone instead of just for the strongest or most powerful.
Please share this prayer and make use of it and use it whenever you feel it would benefit those gathered. Say it together when you need to slow down and anchor yourselves within the greater web of Creation and remember gratitude and reciprocity.
And now our minds are one.
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Write your own version of the Thanksgiving Prayer.
It was never a prayer intended to be memorized by rote, but rather a prayer that comes from our heart and our experience of and gratitude to the Earth.
Use words and phrases that have emotional meaning for you.
Use examples of our Earth kin that have resonance to you in your life. Write a Thanksgiving to the Natural World that has meaning for you.
Share your Thanksgiving Address in the Community chat.
Use your Thanksgiving address on a regular basis, everywhere, in all circumstances in your life.
Maybe have a short simple version that you can use as a quick reminder in tough situations.
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Dancing, singing, playing a game or an instrument - anything that we do in joy is an offer of worship and prayer to Creation. Our experience of joy in the world is a gift received by Creation and given back with gratitude.
The easiest, simplest worship is to feel joy and hold the thought of Beloved Presence, Creation, the Earth, the Plants, Animals, Water, Wind, Sky, People - any being and all Beings and include them in your love and joy. No exceptions.
Congratulations, worship accomplished. What we send out into the world is our treasure. Sharing love and joy is how we create heaven on Earth. It's always been this simple.
We can dance and send our love and joy to Beloved Presence and the Earth. We can sing and send our love and joy to Beloved Presence and the Earth.
Then we need to let the world love us in return.
(Do not underestimate how powerful is our inclination to not allow or receive love from the World.)