From Edie: Discover how cultivating gratitude can transform your writing life. In Spiritual Practices for Writers: The Practice of Thanksgiving, learn how giving thanks reduces anxiety, renews creativity, and deepens your connection with God as you create.
Spiritual Practices for Writers: The Practice of Thanksgiving
by Audrey Frank @AudreyCFrank
For Mom, with love.
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”(Luke 17:1-19, NIV)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7, NIV).
I have practiced making my mother’s pumpkin pie squares for thirty years. I’ve literally driven through African rivers to find a grocer who had imported pumpkins from the rich red soil of the Ngong Hills (hello, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford). I’ve prepared Mom’s delightful dish in a mud hut and baked it inside a Kenyan pot over an open fire. I’ve practiced making her legacy Thanksgiving dish in Morocco, where pumpkins grow beside lakes the color of aquamarine gemstones. I’ve shortcut the process in England, bouncing a baby on my hip while steaming pumpkin mercifully pre-peeled and chopped by a local farmer. This year, I’m practicing the craft of pumpkin pie squares in Italy, despite the skeptical comments of my pumpkin-connoisseur Italian chef friend, who makes the best pumpkin ravioli this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
