Thanksgiving and Thankful

It is that time of year again where facebook is loaded down with daily post of what each person is thankful for. This yr I did not par take in that not because I'm not thankful , I am , I just don't like to follow the crowd I like to be my own person. I made one post and listed everything I could think of that morning and said if you most know here is my list,lol.

I AM THANKFUL FOR........For this journey we call life, for the belief that even when the body dies the spirit doesn't, for my husband ( my soulmate, best friend), my kids ( who hold the keys to my heart), my mother, my father, my sisters(who are my best friends), my brothers(even the stupid step brother), all the step parents I h

ave had(because they too have taught me lessons), My grandparents( because no one could ever compare to them), My aunts, My Uncles, My father and mother in-law because they are just as much to me as if I were their child, My lil brother in-law and his kick as wife Gwen, For the fact that as of right now I still live in a free country, for food, for home, for money to pay the bills, for my wild adventurous days that taught me some of the hardest lessons ever, for all those people who have played a part in making me who I am today, For a mind that never stops questioning, for the love of books, for nature, for animals, for clean water, for the fact that right now where I live bombs are not going off and my family is safe, for the stars in the sky, for the diversity of life on earth, for the sun that gives life to all, for friends who support me, for my health, for coffee( we can't forget coffee,lol), For music, for poetry, for the sound of birds in the morning, For rain and stormy nights, For sex ( yes I said sex, you know your tankful for it too), for all the men and women that protect the country, four winter, for spring, for summer, and for fall, For the beauty in the cycle of life, For ancestors, for every single hard day I have ever had in life( you learn the real lessons when it is hard), for all the spiritual teachers who have made me stop and search for my own answers, for all the little things that we take for granted, Pretty much I'm just thankful to have learned so much, felt so hard, Loved so deeply, in the 35 yrs in this life I have seen good and bad but the ride has been amazing and I would do it all over again.   

So there it is my list now on to the holiday season. We are taking most of this week off. Just doing a lot of fun stuff like making handprint ornaments for the tree. Helping cooking Thanksgiving dinner. We will watch our learn our History Thanksgiving DVD tomorrow. This weekend we will put up our tree. In my family it has always been tree goes up after Thanksgiving and comes down after The New Year. We talked about how pagan's celebrate their thanksgiving. This is part of our yr long study of the pagan religion and how it differs from our own personal beliefs . Most pagans have a celebration of thanksgiving on the fall equinox. 

Fall Equinox

• Also called:Mabon, Michaelmas
• dates:around September 21
• colors:orange, red, brown, purple, blue
• tools:cornucopia, corn, harvested crops
• energy:appreciation & harvest
• goddesses:Bona Dea, Land Mother
• gods:Mabon, Sky Father
• rituals: thanksgiving, harvest, introspection
• customs: offerings to land, preparing for cold weather, bringing in harvest  

We learned how puritans did not really like many of our holidays we now celebrate because they believed they had pagan roots. We talked about why we see so much religious racism   and how we hope that one day people will except that everyone has their own path. I taught her the similarities of the Pagan Reed.." Do as you wish if it harm non" and how that is very much the same as " do unto others as they would do unto you" In our home we find it important to not tell our children what to believe spiritually but to give them the information to hopefully oneday make a judgement on which path is best for this life/journey they are on. We try to teach them to not judge another person or religion and to walk a mile in another man's shoes. Being in the homeschool community I know for many you feel strongly to fall the Christian path and you feel your children should be made to as well. We just don't see it that way. If they grow up to be Christians it will be because their free thinking minds lead them in that direction. So I most now add one more to my thankful list...I am thankful I live in a free country where we have the right of freedom of religion so that I do not have to force a religion on my children . I can give them the information and tools on all religions allowing them to not only explore what feels right in their hearts but a mind to make a soul choice for themselves.