Thanksgiving and Giving Thanks

I like Thanksgiving. Not because it’s a chance to overeat or reexamine history, but because it’s a holiday we can distill, in ways we each choose, to a celebration of thankfulness itself. When I began putting together a Thanksgiving display for our front table, I wanted to make sure it represented more than just cookbooks, so I had to do a little sleuthing in sections ranging from poetry to nature writing to spirituality. A few books I came across took me by special surprise. Here are some I'm especially excited about.

Earth Prayers From Around the World: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations for Honoring the Earth, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon
This wonderful little anthology is collected into eleven parts including The Ecological Self; Blessings and Invocations; Praise and Thanksgiving; Benediction for the Animals; Cycles of Life; and The Daily Round. Inclusions range from Walt Whitman, Wendell Berry, Dylan Thomas and Thich Nhat Hanh, as well as pieces from the Chinook, Aivilik Eskimos, Navajo, Teton Sioux, Zuni, Masai, and more.

Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices Caring for Creation edited by Lyndsay Moseley and the staff of Sierra Club Books. Every time I see this little book I am fascinated. This collection of nearly three dozen essays examines earth stewardship from the perspectives of the world's faith religions. Includes "Grace" by Gary Snyder, "Heaven and Earth Meet" by Pope Benedict XVI; and "The Shalom Principle" by Peter Sawtell. Other familiar names include Terry Tempest Williams, Wendell Berry and Janisse Ray.

Stonewall Kitchen Winter Celebrations: Special Recipes for Family and Friends by Jonathan King, Jim Stott, and Kathy Gunst
Preparing food is a holy act. Possibly made holier with recipes like "butternut squash soup with curried pecans, apple, and goat cheese" or "thin green beans with brown butter and roasted chestnuts." Wow. Poetry in the titles alone... I wouldn't recommend entirely displacing such simple acts of divinity as cornbread, but I wouldn't pass over some indulgence, either.