Cultivating Thankfulness With 5 Kernels Of Corn
Give Thanks
Five Kernels of Corn
When the first Pilgrims landed on the shores of America, they were poorly prepared for life in the wilderness of the North American continent. They came at a time unfavorable for surviving as a new colony.
The Pilgrims were willing to risk all to find a place where they could worship God freely according to their convictions, but they had no real idea of what the cost for such a risk involved. Only half of the original Mayflower passengers survived their first winter.
It was in the winter of 1623, during the “starving Time”, that the tradition of the five kernels of corn found its root. It was during that time that the rations for the new settlers were reduced to the barest minimum, when many of their meals consisted of this parsimonious amount of grain.
And yet they were thankful.
Without the help of the Native peoples of this new land they could not have survived. The Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared a feast after the first harvest, and that marked a common center of what was to come.
American history illustrates both the capacity we have for thankfulness and generosity, and how quickly and cruelly we can forget our debt of gratefulness. The holiday of Thanksgiving is one day of the year we are to remind ourselves of how dependent we were, and are, on God’s bounty and blessings, and the people through whom we receive kindness and support.
Much later in our history, Thanksgiving became a nationally recognized holiday whose general purpose is to give thanks for the many blessings enjoyed throughout the year.
Ideas To Cultivate Gratefulness
Try some of these ways to increase your own, and your family’s sense of thankfulness and appreciation
The corn cob, and corn kernels are an important part of the Thanksgiving history. Corn was the lifesaving grain that the Indians provided the Pilgrims both to eat and to learn to grow. A fitting table decoration for the holiday.
Ways to Show Thankfulness
Vintage Thanksgiving card
Zenhabits posted a list of practical ways to show your thankfulness to others. First on the list was “Create a ‘Gratitude Ritual'”. Simply taking the time to meditate on things you are grateful for, it is a form of “Count your many Blessings, Name them one by one”, as the old song goes. Take a look at the list, then visit the original post for details of how to incorporate each into your life.
10 Ways to Show You Are Grateful
- Create a Gratitude Ritual.
- Send a thank-you note.
- Give a hug.
- Say a prayer of thanks.
- Do someone a free favor.
- Give a small gift.
- Make a list of things you are thankful for about a person and give it to them.
- Acknowledge the person publicly.
- Surprise them with kindness.
- Give thanks for the negatives.
There it is- a list most of us think about in bits and pieces, but done with intent, that list could transform our corner of the world.
It is the small things…
It is often the small act of kindness that makes the big impact in a person’s life. Don’t overlook opportunities to express thanks this season.
You can…
Send a bouquet of flowers.
Make a handmade card.
Bake homemade cookies from scratch for someone.
Give a phone call “just because”.
The common factor is to lavish a little of yourself and your time on the person.
Spiritual Ways to Show Thankfulness to God.
I am a little more thankful than usual these days. The economic shifts simply highlight the fact that life is more than possessions, and makes the relationships and intangibles more clearly valuable.
Freedom From Want
Norman Rockwell painting of family Thanksgiving meal
Count Your Many Blessings
It might seem a cliché, but this truth of counting ones blessings to impress a feeling of gratefulness upon my soul has only grown stronger and deeper through the years.
In fact, in my own life I have come to see that it is a lack of gratefulness and the neglect of expressing it that underlies many of life’s problems. We forget how good we have it. We forget the sacrifices of others to bless us with plenty. We forget our peace and plenty and are in danger of losing it.
I have been cultivating this habit of expression in rebuilding relationships, but how much have I lost through the years that were bereft of sufficient amounts of showing affirmation and speaking thanks to those around me? I must release those regrets and simply turn my gaze towards the sowing of such acts today.
I have hope of a good harvest from those seeds of spoken thanks, and attitudes of gratefulness.
This Day Is Set Aside For Just Such an Expression
Part of giving thanks on Thanksgiving Day involves that act of counting our blessings. In America we have been blessed with plenty. And not least of our blessings are those very precious privileges of personal freedoms. The Pilgrims came to a new land hoping to be free to worship God according to their conscience. The America of today is a place, one of the few in the world, where that freedom is vouchsafed to every citizen.
