It’s that time of year again.  Thanksgiving time.  Time to draw those near and dear close and sup on feasts extraordinaire while giving thanks for the bountiful blessings that have been bestowed upon us.

Certain tried and true recipes become requested favorites.  This year is no exception.  My sisters and I are in charge of appetizers (you know, the food we really, really need before eating one of the richest, heaviest meals of the year!)…and I’ll be bringing a few of the family faves.

Other types of recipes are also tried and true.  When I pondered what to share in a Thanksgiving post I thought about the Recipe for Appreciation that I created last year.  I searched for it…found it.  Read it.  And discovered it’s still a perfectly delicious treat…that bears repeating.

From my heart to yours…  May Happy Thanksgiving Blessings Abundantly Be Yours, today and always.

I Love and Appreciate YOU.  I love your passion for life, your sense of wonder, your love of JOY and your commitment to shine in your brilliance in all you do.  I SEE YOU.  I LOVE YOU.  Thank you for being here.

And now…  A Taste of Appreciation  ~ It gets even better with age.  :)

Having just celebrated Thanksgiving here in the U.S. I’ve found myself contemplating the essence of giving thanks…and where it takes me.

In my world giving thanks leads me to a feeling...a feeling of immense JOY and appreciation for whom ever or what ever it is that I’m recognizing I’m thankful for.

I’ve been playing with the vibration that surrounds saying thank you…just the words…and then really tuning in to the appreciation factor and feeling the words as I say them with appreciation.

Let’s walk beyond thanksgiving together…

Most of us when asked what we’re thankful for will say family…or perhaps one or two significant others in the form of close friends, partners, etc.

On the Road to Appreciation

Now if we simply say, “I’m thankful for my family.” The words alone may not conjure much vibrationally.  But, if we allow ourselves to enter into the feeling realm of why we’re thankful for our family (or a special friend, etc.) we begin to see and feel within ourselves all the wonderful aspects that we love about them and it sends amazing ripples of love and appreciation through us.

From this place, we are beyond thankful.
We are in the essence of appreciation, we are in the essence of love and the vibration here is so high…we feel high!
Elated even.  We are moved.  Our hearts and souls are engaged.

Mother Nature leads us to Appreciation

When we surround ourselves with nature and we gaze out into her beauty it’s easy to find at least one thing we see that we’re thankful for.  We may be grateful for the blue sky, the soft, gentle breeze, the trees that offer shade on a hot summer day, or the way the sun glistens on the new fallen snow.

We could just say we’re thankful for these things…
and I don’t know about you, but for me…I can’t stop there.  I am easily taken in by the beauty that surrounds me…and suddenly I’m over come with immense appreciation for Mother Nature, for her grace, her steadfastness, her power, her magnificence.

What might shift?

Can you imagine how things might shift to the highest positive if we were willing to look at all of life through the eyes of love and appreciation?

What would happen if every where we looked we could only see something positive, something that we loved, something that made us feel good?

It reminds me of the post I wrote months back about Seeing Life Through Rose-Colored Glasses.

What if our eyes were equipped with a special filter that heightened our awareness to the good that surrounds us in every situation…even those situations that seem entirely dire and dim?

What if I told you that we ARE equipped with that special filter?  What if I suggested that each and every one of us have that filter alive and well within us? What if I said the only thing necessary to turn it on, to activate it is our own willingness, our own conscious choice to do so?

Would you turn yours on?  Would you turn it up, full throttle, and allow the world that surrounds you to be filled with things you feel good about?  Things you love, things that make you feel better than ever?

Do you believe it’s possible?

I do.  I’m living proof.  I see the good stuff.  I feel good in my life.  Joy is mine.

Do I sometimes have to have my filter re-adjusted?  No, my filter is made of perfection and can not be broken and it never loses it’s power.  It’s me who sometimes needs adjusting.

It’s me who sometimes needs a tune-up.  And all that takes is me noticing that I’m seeing things that don’t make me feel good, things that bring me down, things I don’t like.  When I notice I’m seeing some of these things I know it’s time for a tune up.

3 Steps to a Quick & Easy Appreciation Tune Up~

1. Think of and write down as many things as you can that make you feel good…keep writing until no more things come in right now.
   
2. Think of and write down at least 5 things/people/places you love and allow yourself to move into the feeling place of why you love them…what do you love about them…how does all of it make you feel.
   
3. Take yourself into nature and look for as many things as you can that look beautiful, things that bring out the wonder and appreciation in you.

If we’ve managed to block the flow of our special appreciation filter and there isn’t much we’re seeing that looks or feels good, it may feel challenging at best to do these 3 easy steps.

If you find yourself feeling that way, here’s a question to ask yourself.  It’s one that when I ask it of myself, it gets me on track every time:

Do I love the way I’m feeling, do I want to continue feeling this way…or is there something better I’d like to be feeling?

OK…so technically that’s 3 questions.  Bear with me.

As soon as we ask ourselves if we’d like to feel better…as soon as we glimpse the idea that we can…we’ve shifted into an opening that allows the feel better to come in.

Abraham says, “Look for the thing you like the best even if there’s only one thing in all of it that you like, give it your undivided attention and use IT as your excuse to be who you are.  And as you use those things that shine bright and make you feel good as your excuse to give your attention, and as your excuse to be who you are, you’ll tune to who you are…and the whole world will begin to transform before your eyes.
It’s not your job to transform it for others, but it is your job to transform it for YOU.”

From this place we can begin our tune up…and get that special filter activated…leading us to the most amazing life experiences we could ever hope for…with ample amounts of Feel Good and JOY along the way.

I’ve said it before.  I’ll say it again.  Life is meant to be JOYful, to be enJOYed.  And one of the clearest, most easily travelled paths to experiencing that is the Road of Appreciation.

This quote from Abraham sums it up nicely~

“Appreciation is me being in sync with the whole of that which I am.  
Appreciation is seeing what ever I’m looking at through the eyes of Source.
A state of appreciation is a state of godliness;
A state of appreciation is being who you really are.”

So go Beyond Thanksgiving.  Find yourself in a State of Appreciation.  It feels good.

• How do you activate your special appreciation filter?
• How has living in a State of Appreciation made a difference in your life?
• …or if this road is new to you…  How do you imagine being in a State of Appreciation may support the Feel Good in your life?  *Remember, imagining makes it so!

You’ll enJOY this YouTube video from Abraham-Hicks on Appreciation vs. Gratitude.  Fitting, huh?  The Abraham quotes in my post came from this video…listen for them!

Road to Appreciation “Thank You” Photo

My heart swells to almost bursting with the Gratitude and Love I feel for each of you.

Gratitude and Thanks Giving are always the utmost priority of importance to me.  They are a natural part of my existance…like breathing, really.

At times I find it funny to think back to when I was a lot younger…as a child awaiting Thanksgiving Day…a day I was taught was for expressing everything that I was grateful for.  I remember making lists of gratitude before Thanksgiving and being worried, what if I forgot someone, something that I was thankful for?? I felt pressured somehow to remember every fine detail, after all…THIS was THE day of THANKSGIVING!

How interesting.  With some thought I realized that being grateful was just a natural part of who I was.  My Mom taught me well, “always remember to say Thank You”.  :0)  I didn’t have to save up my Thank You’s for one special day…I could shower my Thank You’s any day of the year!  Whew!  What a relief.  And of course that’s what I did anyway.

Thanks Giving Day took on new meaning for me in those years.  I saw it as a day to more deeply honor and remember my Gratitude for each and every blessing that breathes in my life.  On Thanks Giving Day it seems the veils are lifted and for one day, if we choose, we can see through the eyes of compassion even more clearly.  We can see the Love of Source pouring through each and every detail of our Loved Ones, of the Nature that surrounds us…even in the things that may not seem so ‘pretty’ day to day.

Thanks Giving Day teaches me to give even more energy to the Power of Gratitude in our lives.  Being thankful is a powerful gift…one that we give…one that keeps on giving and is always given back to be received.

On this day, when the doors to our hearts are flung wide open, when our souls feel the sheer rapture, the utter bliss of being steeped in Gratitude, may we choose to acknowledge that feeling…cherish it…and may we choose to make every day Thanks Giving Day!

Today, with Abundant Gratitude, I say YES to Thanks Giving!  I say YES to Thanks Giving Day being every day.  I say YES to those veils being lifted so that we see clearly in every moment all the blessings and beauty that surround us, everything there is to be grateful for beaming brightly, shining with joy.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart, from the depths of my soul, for walking this path through our journey of life with me.  Thank you for the beauty, the wisdom, the inspiration and the soul that each of you bring to the every day experience of living on this planet.  Thank you for breathing life into everything you do…everything that you are…everything that you BEcome.

Be Blessed, today and everyday, with Love, Joy, Abundance, Peace, Harmony and GRATITUDE…pouring freely from me to you!

Happy Thanks Giving Beloveds!

~Debra

Vegan Holiday Menu

( click the links for the entire feast )

Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms ( Monday )
Organic Mixed Green Salad with Toasted Pecan Vinaigrette ( Tuesday )
Blue Corn Crusted Tempeh with Shiitake Mushroom Gravy ( Wednesday )
Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Pilaf ( Thursday )
Cranberry Sauce ( Thursday )
Pumpkin Pie with Dairy-free Maple Whip ( Friday )

Pumpkin Pie with Dairy-free Maple Whip

20 min prep / 1 hour cooking + pumpkin cooking time / 9” pie

1 pre-made 9” Pie Crust
1 medium Pumpkin (1 ¾ C cooked)
¾ C Almond butter
¼ C Soy milk
¼ C Maple syrup
¼ C Sucanat or organic sugar
3 Tbl Molasses
2 Tbl Arrowroot powder
½ tsp Vanilla extract
¼ tsp Cardamom powder
¼ tsp Allspice powder
¼ tsp Nutmeg, ground
1/8 tsp Clove powder

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cut pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Place face down on a well oiled or parchment paper lined baking pan. Bake until a knife easily goes through the skin and the flesh of the pumpkin, approximately 45 minutes.
2. Scoop out 1 ¾ C pumpkin, place in food processor or blender with remaining ingredients and process or blend until smooth.
3. Pour mixture into pie crust and bake until top is firm to touch, approximately 1 hour. Filling may puff up and rise above crust line as it bakes. It will fall back down as it cools.

Dairy-free Maple Whip

12.3 oz Silken tofu
3 Tbl Maple syrup or agave nectar, or to taste
2 tsp Lemon juice, fresh squeezed
½ tsp Vanilla extract
Pinch Cardamom powder
Pinch Cinnamon powder

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

This concludes of Vegan Thanksgiving Feast series.  Enjoy creating your healthy, happy Thanksgiving meal.

Here are the links to all the recipes:

Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms ( Monday )
Organic Mixed Green Salad with Toasted Pecan Vinaigrette ( Tuesday )
Blue Corn Crusted Tempeh with Shiitake Mushroom Gravy ( Wednesday )
Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Pilaf ( Thursday )
Cranberry Sauce ( Thursday )

Recipe from Mark Reinfeld, Author, Vegan Fusion World Cuisine: Healing Recipes and Timeless Wisdom from our Hearts to Yours & The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw

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