Kate's Blog on Health and Spirituality

Steven Salt, a colleague and a writer who covers the nexus of science, spirituality and health, gives us much food for thought in this proclamation of gratitude. Steven shares his spiritual understanding and heart filled messages from heroes who lived in other tumultuous periods of history. In this article, he offers a healing (spiritual) remedy for our present unrest. I hope you will join me and read this Thanksgiving address that is relevant for all times!

Could things be anymore divided?

Protest, distrust, hatred, and violence scarred the year, but the President thoughtfully shared his impression: "The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies."

Abraham Lincoln's gracious assessment of 1863 is immortalized in the opening line of his first Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. And it offers insight into a healing response to this year's unrest.

Over 150 years have passed since Lincoln's establishment of an annual, national observance of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." In 1863, that day came just one week after the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg where Lincoln gave is celebrated two-minute address. The War Between the States would go on for another year and a half.

What prompted Lincoln to articulate such a "healthful" outlook, where many saw only servitude to gloom and despair, was an intensified appreciation for blessings and their origin. He saw "bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come." He writes in his Thanksgiving Proclamation that these abundances are "so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God."

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Kate is interested in sharing blogs about the impact of prayer and spirituality on our health written by her colleagues. As a Christian Science practitioner and teacher, Kate has experienced the power of prayer in her life as well as in the lives of others. She is the media and legislative contact for Christian Science in Maryland. Kate can be contacted through Twitter @CScomMaryland and email at: maryland@compub.org