What leads to your feeling of gratitude?  What do you give thanks for today?

“We offer gratitude, and everything will be provided.”

Tekaronieneken Jake Swamp

Thank you, good foods from Mother Earth, our life sustainers, for making us happy when we are hungry. 

Fruits and berries, we thank you for your color and sweetness.

We are all thankful to good medicine herbs, for healing us when we are sick.

Thank you, all the animals in the world, for keeping our precious forests clean.

All the trees in the world, we are thankful for the shade and warmth you give us.

Thank you, all the birds in the world, for singing your beautiful songs for all to enjoy.

We give thanks to you, gentle Four Winds, for bringing clean air for us to breathe from four directions.

Thank you Grandfather Thunder Beings for bringing rains to help all living things grow.

Elder Brother Sun, we send thanks for shining your light and warming Mother Earth.

Thank you, Grandmother Moon, for growing full every month to light the darkness for children and sparkling waters.

We give thanks, twinkling stars, for making the night sky so beautiful and for sprinkling morning dew drops on the plants.

Spirit Protectors of our past and present, we thank you for showing us ways to live in peace and harmony with one another.

And most of all, thank you, Great Spirit, for giving us all these wonderful gifts, so we will be happy and healthy every day and every night." 

"Just under the skin are pressure receptors called "Pacinian corpuscles," says Tiffany Field, one of the world's leading touch researchers and the director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami in Florida. "They receive pressure stimulation," Field says, "and the pressure receptors send a signal to the brain". 

"The Pacinian corpuscles' signals go directly to an important nerve bundle deep in the brain called the vagus nerve. The vagus sometimes is called "the wanderer" because it has branches that wander throughout the body to several internal organs, including the heart. And it's the vagus nerve that then slows the heart down and decreases blood pressure." ~ Excerpted from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128795325