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<blogEntry id="4669">
	<title><![CDATA[thanks]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/5841620255/"]Ky&#333;to - Nakagy&#333;: Honke Owariya - Hourai Soba[/URL] by Wally Gobetz[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent]




[INDENT][INDENT][i]Thanks to the morning light,
Thanks to the foaming sea,
To the uplands of New Hampshire,
To the green-haired forest free.
[B]Ralph Waldo Emerson, The World-Soul[/B]


If we meet someone who owes us thanks, we right away remember that. But how often do we meet someone to whom we owe thanks without remembering that?
[B]Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Elective Affinities[/B]


To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.
[B]Victor Hugo, L'Homme qui rit[/B]


i thank you god for this most amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes 
[B]e e cummings, I thank you god for this most amazing[/B] 


Thank you. You are a very pleasant person.
Thank you. You are too.
[B]John Ashbery, My Erotic Double[/B]


And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. 
[B]T S Eliot, The Waste Land [/B]


I thank you. I am not of many words, but I thank you.
[B]William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 1, scene 1[/B]
 

My desk, most loyal friend
thank you. You've been with me on
every road I've taken.
My scar and my protection. 
[b]Marina Tsvetaeva, Desk[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


In Japan there is a Labor Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November.

It was originally a harvest festival. Under the American Occupation after the Second World War it was reborn as Labor Thanksgiving Day. Theoretically it is a day to appreciate everyone's work and also the results of everyone's work. But it also includes the ideas of human rights and environment protection.

There is a tradition in some religions of saying grace before a meal. To say thank you for the meal and perhaps to ask for it to be blessed. [I]For what we are about to receive…[/I]

Before a meal Japanese people say [I]itadakimasu[/I]. I receive this with thanks. It's one of many Japanese phrases that don't have a simple translation.  

It is to give thanks to the plants and animals and fish that you are about to eat. And to the preparers of the meal and to the farmers and fishermen and everyone else in the chain who helped to bring the food to the table. I wrote about food in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/dharma-food-4656/"][I]dharma food[/I][/URL]. 
  
Another way of saying receive in Japanese is [I]ukeru[/I]. In the martial arts the person who receives a technique is the [I]uke[/I]. The act of receiving a technique is [I]ukemi[/I]. The [I]ukemi[/I] can mean the breakfall. Or it can mean the whole process of attacking and then receiving a technique. I'll talk about [I]ukemi[/I] in detail in future posts and columns. 

After a meal Japanese people say [I]gochisousama deshita[/I]. It was a wonderful meal. 

I wrote about saying thank you in the martial arts in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/doumo-arigatou-gozaimashita-3956/"][I]doumo. arigatou. gozaimashita[/I][/URL].

Sometimes Japanese people ask what we say in English for [I]itadakimasu[/I]. Well we can always use French. 

[I]Bon appétit[/I].

Niall

  
[i][B]e-books, poems + background articles[/B]

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12843[/url]
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poems


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11366[/url]
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Elective Affinities


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5423[/url]
Victor Hugo, L'homme qui rit - in French

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12587[/url]
Victor Hugo, L'homme qui rit - in English


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1321[/url]
T S Eliot, The Waste Land


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works


[url]http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/e__e__cummings/poems/14210[/url]
e e cummings, i thank you god for this most amazing


[url]http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177263[/url]
John Ashbery, My Erotic Double


[url]http://calmthings.blogspot.jp/2009/02/alberto-giacometti-still-life-with.html[/url]
[url]http://nataliejabbar.wordpress.com/tag/jean-valentine/[/url]
Marina Tsvetaeva, excerpts from Desk


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Thanksgiving_Day[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_festival[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_Day[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette_in_Japan#eating_and_drinking[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_(prayer) [/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/5841620255/"]Ky&#333;to - Nakagy&#333;: Honke Owariya - Hourai Soba[/URL] by Wally Gobetz


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>11-27-2012</date>
</blogEntry>
</blogEntries>