Giving Thanks

Today in the USA we observe Thanksgiving, perhaps my favorite holiday of the year. Other holidays have become so commercialized, or politicized. Thanksgiving is about gratitude, and it's hard to mess with that.

I've got to go bake a pumpkin pie for my family gathering, but first a few words and a song for you.

Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.
--Mary Baker Eddy, in Science and Health

And a song from Norwegian Sondre Bratland and Pakistani Javed Bashir, who recorded a beautiful album of sacred music together, blending Christian and Muslim texts. This song of thanksgiving includes the words: "Countless as sand, and tremendously as the deep waters of the ocean is the grace of God which he pours over my head every morning. Every morning He freely offers me an immeasurable grace in my bowl."

[mp3] Sondre Bratland & Javed Bashir: "Morning Hymn"
from the album Dialogue (2006, KKV)

Happy Thanksgiving. And thanks for reading SoundRoots.

tags: worldmusic, thanksgiving, norway, pakistan