Earthworms

Today let us give thanks for earthworms
For their tireless tunneling through the soil of the world
Loosening, lightening, aerating the earth
Creating passages for air and moisture to flow more freely
Enabling life to root and grow and flourish.

And let us also give thanks for ourselves
For our tunneling through the soil of our personal and collective lives,
Loosening, lightening, enlivening our world
Creating passages for love and light to flow more freely
Enabling the many different expressions of spirit to root and grow and flourish.

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Today, let us be earthworms of light.
May our presence create pathways of connection, appreciation and love in our world.

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Feet

Today let us give thanks for feet,
Walking feet, standing feet, marching feet, dancing feet.
Feet in socks, in shoes, in boots, in slippers.
Bare feet on grass, in streams, on beaches, on warm stone.
Let us give thanks for padded paws of kittens and tigers and meerkats and dogs,
For paddle-feet of ducks and geese and all the water birds,
For hooves of horses and camels and buffalo and bison.
Let us give thanks for claw-shaped feet of crocodiles and chameleons,
For giant plate-shaped elephant feet,
The delicate feet of flies and spiders and moths and grasshoppers,
And branch-gripping feet of birds.

Let us give thanks for all the feet that are walking the earth at this time,
Step by step, footfall by footfall,
All proclaiming,
‘I am here, in this place, in this time, in this earthly family.
This footfall is my mark, where I touch soul to soil,
And bring the blessing of my presence to this life we share.”

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As we walk through our day today, step by step, let us allow the blessing of our presence to touch the earth, and the blessing of the earth to welcome and support the presence that we bring.

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Flying Things

Today let us give thanks for flying things
For swallows and swans and sparrows
And skeins of sounding geese across the evening sky.

Let us give thanks for mosquitoes and midges and magpies.
For bats and bees and butterflies
and all the pollinating insects.

Let us give thanks for the hovering of hawks and helicopters
For planes that give us wings and fly us to far-distant places
For fairies, fireflies and flying fish,
And the downward drift of leaves in autumn.

Let us give thanks for the sun, the earth, the moon,
And all the heavenly bodies sailing through space.

Let us give thanks for flights of fancy,
The rising of hope, the wings of love, the lifting of our spirits,
And the presence of angels.

Let us give thanks also for places to land and fly from
As we touch down this morning in this quiet sanctuary
Anchoring in this time and place the soaring of our souls.

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Friendship

Today let us give thanks for friendship.
For the warmth and welcome of friends who love us.
For the courage and caring of friends who confront us.
For the friendship of challenge and pain and difficulties
And of the moments that uplift and inspire and affirm us
For the friendship of miracles.

Let us give thanks for the tail-wagging friendship of dogs
And the aloof friendship of cats,
For the flying and singing friendship of birds
And the buzzing friendship of bees as they befriend the flowers.

Let us give thanks for the friendship of grass and gravel
clouds and cauliflowers,
trees and teapots,
kettles and kindness,
glass in our windows and warmth in our homes
and the friendship of food.

Let us give thanks for the friendship of this Sanctuary.
For the quiet air and all the holy presences of this place.
Let us give thanks for the friendship of this mellow morning
and the blessing of our presence in it.
And for the friendship of this soft day that blesses us.

Let us give thanks for this whole world that welcomes and befriends us.

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As we move out into our day, let us offer the gift of our friendship to whoever and whatever we encounter, both externally and internally.

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Kindness

Today let us give thanks for kindness

For the kindness of rain on summer gardens,
Of sunshine calling life to open and blossom
And storms that seize and shake us to our core

Let’s give thanks for the kindness of a helping hand
And the look or word that says I see and value you,
For the kindness of those who tend the specifics of their lives
With honour and respect.

Let’s give thanks for the kindness of grasshoppers and birdsong,
Of roads and pathways that ease our journeys,
And comforting beds at night.

Let’s give thanks for the kindness of cooks all over the world who are even now preparing meals for family and friends, strangers, the homeless.
And for the kindness of food that sustains us, of life agreeing to be sustenance for life.

Let’s give thanks for the kindness of this earth, this planet, this Gaian presence that holds and nurtures each one of us, that fosters and embraces all life within and upon it.

Kindness arises from and fosters kinship.
So let’s give thanks also for kinship,
Our kinship with all life, past, present and future,
Physical and non-physical,
The kinship in which we are embedded and which welcomes and celebrates the presence of each of us in this sanctuary this morning,
Welcoming also our own capacities for kindness and the fostering of kinship.

…….

Let’s hold for a moment the felt sense of kinship with all life,
And let that move out through the subtle fields of earth and spirit
In blessing to our world.
And as we move out into this coming day, let us bring kindness into our actions and interactions.

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Roads

Today let us give thanks for roads
Roads that carry us through country-sides of fields and forests, along coast-lines, past castles and cows, homes and harvests,
That meander through mountains, cut across plains,
Take us to towns, guide us through cities,
Roads that foster connections, taking us out into the world and bringing us back home.

Let us also give thanks for our inner roads of heart and mind and spirit,
That weave and wind through our interior landscapes,
Connecting heart and soul and body, opening new directions,
Leading us to a fuller knowledge and appreciation of our personal worlds.

And let’s give thanks for the roads of relationship we build in the fabric of our lives,
With friends and fir-trees and food,
Work and water,
With cushions and cashiers and clouds,
Sunshine and strawberries,
Tea cups and tables,
With bathrooms, and books, and blackbirds on our lawns.

We are road-makers and road-travellers.
May all our roads, inner and outer,
Lead us into loving our world,
And bring us safely and surely home to ourselves.

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As we move into our morning, let’s bless the roads we will travel and make today.

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Roundness

Today let us give thanks for the roundness of things.

The supportive roundness of wheels on bikes and cars and wheelbarrows,
The juicy roundness of apples and grapes, plums and blueberries,
The roundness of our earth, and of the moon, the sun
and all the wheeling stars.

Let us give thanks for the roundness of openings on bottles and jars
The roundness at the heart of flowers
The golden eye ring of the blackbird
And the roundness of hugs.

Let us give thanks for our daily round, the seasonal round, the celestial round,
For musical rounds, rounds of golf,
And convivial rounds in pubs.

Let us give thanks for the roundness of seeds,
Holding the pattern and potential of unique flowerings in the world.
Let us give thanks for the unfolding of our own personal seeds
As we sit here this morning in this sanctuaried circle
Filled with the spirit that supports us to lead well-rounded lives.

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As we move into our daily round today,
Let’s experience ourselves held in the roundness of the world’s embrace
and may we hold all we encounter in the roundness of our own embrace.

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Singers

Today let us give thanks for singers.
For all those who raise their voices in song.
For happy singers in the shower,
For those who whistle while they work,
For birthday celebration singers
And for singers of lullabies and love-songs.
Let’s give thanks for professional singers:
Opera singers – pop singers – folk singers – rock singers and rap singers
All those who bring music to our ears.
Let’s give thanks for the singing of violins and harps and trumpets and clarinets and all the instruments of sound.
Let’s give thanks for singers in the singing chamber, singers in churches and synagogues, in schools, in kitchens and corridors and cars.
Singers on rooftops, in trees, singers sailing on the wind.
Let’s give thanks for the sounding of whales, the howling of wolves and the squeaking of mice,
For the barking of dogs, the bleating of lambs and (even) the hum of mosquitoes,
For the crowing of roosters, the buzzing of bees, the gabbling of geese and the silence of snakes.
Let’s give thanks and celebrate all those who in their own unique way give voice to the sound of their soul.

………

Today let the song of our soul sing through us,
And join the symphony sounding through all creation around us.

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Touch

Today let us give thanks for touch
for the touch of the air on our skin…
the warm touch of sunlight,
the cool wetness of rain,
the short sting of snowflakes.

Let us give thanks for the touch of tree trunks and tea mugs,
Cushions and kindness,
The solidity of stones and fluidity of water,
And hot buttered toast on our tongue.
Let us give thanks for the touch of birdsong and bulldozers,
Of hands of friends and lovers,
Of grass on bare feet and mud between toes,
And of moments of magic.

Let us give thanks for the touch of the chair or cushion below us that allows the vastness of our soul to touch down and inhabit this morning, this moment, in this sanctuary at Findhorn.

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Today let’s notice and give thanks for the many ways in which the world touches and blesses us,
And may our touching in turn return that blessing.

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Water

Today let us give thanks for the blessing of water

For lakes and rivers and seas
For puddles and ponds
For bays and inlets and streams
And the vast oceans that embrace our earth and from which all organic life emerged.

Let us give thanks for delicate dew-drops on grass
For frozen ice-floes and frost-lined trees in winter,
For clouds and glaciers,
Pristine polar landscapes and the moisture of mist,
For the pounding power of waves in storms
And the impersonal flashing of floods.

Let us give thanks for water in pipes, in glasses, in hoses, in wells,
In buckets carried on heads for miles.
Water in kettles, in teas, in soups and stews,
Water that seeps into soil,
Rises through sap,
Drifts into air
Condenses as rain
Floats down as snow
Water that sustains the cells of all living things,
Linking us in an ocean of life,
Living, flowing, enlivening, loving,
Enforming each one of us
As we sit here in this Sanctuary this morning.
The water of life.

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As we move through this day, let’s bless water wherever and however we encounter it, and let’s allow its generous and enlivening energy to move in us and through us and through our actions and interactions, enhancing a fluidity and flow within the whole earth field.

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Picture on top: 1971 Sanctuary photo Findhorn Community