On the 16th
of March I was involved in a beautiful Indigenous- inspired ceremony honouring
the Goddess energy in Port Phillip Bay, around which the city of greater
Melbourne spreads its suburbs. You can read more here.
The most important
aspect to the whole ritual was the notion of gratitude. Gratitude for all the
many good things we have in life and especially gratitude for earth’s bounties.
I spent my childhood on a farm and yet I
don’t always have at the forefront of my mind the fact that all our food has to
come from the earth. It is no wonder then that those who grow up in our cities
can often take for granted the food they get from the supermarket. Or have no
real connection to the products they place on their tables. If there is any
thought beyond the routine of food shopping it can be – “I went out and got it and paid my
hard-earned cash for it – so I’m grateful to me for working so hard.”
When way back we
picked or hunted for our food we made the plants and animals central to our
life –they were our survival. Then when we mastered husbandry and cultivation
and grew our own food we had a direct relationship to it and also to the
process involved. We watched for rain, we yearned for heat or vice versa. We
followed the seasons and the waxing and waning of the moon. We knew the
variables involved could mean lack or plenty for the coming year. And that in
turn meant health or wealth for our loved ones. We therefore honoured the
source with rituals of gratitude and thanks. Everything from pagan worship to
harvest thanksgivings, were aimed at counting our blessings and hoping,
through such gratitude, to ensure the next season’s success.
Gradually though, as
societies have become more complex, and people further and further removed from
the source of their food (and the meaning of religious festivals) their
relationship with Mother Earth is compromised. In losing our connection to food,
beyond obsessing about a calorie count, we disconnect from a fundamental fact
of life - everything we eat comes from the land, sea or sky of this wonderful
blue planet of which we are custodians.
We lucky people no
longer have to be concerned with issues of basic survival, so shouldn’t we be
leading the way in the gratitude stakes? Shouldn’t we be the ones saying the
loudest thankyous? And shouldn’t it be even more obvious to us that we are
blessed to reap the bounties of this planet and that we are actually ‘crazy’ if
we don’t protect and honour it?
In the aforementioned
ritual, those of us who stood on the beach under a full moon, felt deeply
connected to the energy of Mother Earth. We were informed that there was one
word, one emotion required to feed and honour that connection – a word we
should spread far and wide: “Gratitude”.
PS Thank you for reading my blog.
PPS Click here to hear Shawn Achor's very witty and insightful talk on happiness which suggests that making Gratitude part of our everyday lives increases our happiness levels.
PS Thank you for reading my blog.
PPS Click here to hear Shawn Achor's very witty and insightful talk on happiness which suggests that making Gratitude part of our everyday lives increases our happiness levels.
