Thanksgiving Day is one of my favorite Holidays to celebrate. Not because of all the food we get to eat (calories do not count on that day, right?) but because we all get an opportunity to reflect why we are thankful for in our life. Being thankful is something that I decided to practice everyday decades ago. It is part of my daily prayer. When one practices something for a long time there are bound to be difficulties along the way. There have been plenty of times when being thankful was really difficult. It was specially at these times that I told myself that I was not just going to say "I am grateful" and move on. During those times I had to dig really deep to feel grateful.

There is a full moon in pisces tonight and thought it was a good time to start writing emails again. I know it has been a while. Yesterday we just finished the ten day celebration of Lord Ganeśa, the remover of obstacles. Tonight we have the full moon. Tomorrow, in the tradition that I follow, we start a two week period of remembrance called Pitru Paksha. During this time we remember our ancestors.

I have been following the lunar calendar for many years now. For some reason doing this makes me feel more connected to the cycles of nature even though I live in the city. On Saturday August 7th we had a new moon. This moon is said to symbolize new beginnings. We can't see the new moon so every new beginning starts in darkness in seemingly nothingness. As the moon waxes almost as if by magic it starts to reveal itself little by little. It is as though the moon is reminding us the potential that calmly rests in what seems to be nothingness and darkness. At the full moon we get the big reveal and just after that the moon starts to conceal itself again. It is cosmic peek a boo game….

"I felt in need of pilgrimage

So I sat still for three days andGod came to me

Only in the Heart can one experience the divine presence of Truth.

When the flower opens the bees will come.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;

Think about it carefully.

There you have a solid place for your feet …

The summer season starts on June 20th but I feel the summer is in full swing already. I love the hot and sticky New York summers and I also like the cold and snowy winters and everything in between. Life like the seasons is varied and yet there is something constant. There is a beautiful verse that I came across from a book I am reading, the Parātrīśikā Vivaraṇa.

Once upon a time there was a man that had performed intense practices as worship to the sun god, Surya. Surya being extremely pleased with this man appeared to him and told him to ask him for a boon. The man asked for the exceedingly bright gem that Surya wore around his neck which Surya gave him ... with a warning. He said that wearing the gem would produce for him eight wagon loads of pure gold every day but he must bathe and purify himself through ritual and practices before he put the gem on everyday. Surya said that whoever wore the gem while in an impure and dishonorable state would be destroyed.