Book Mama Donna

for a reading, presentation, ritual, workshop, or keynote address at your next meeting, conference, or retreat.

   
Call her at 718-857-1343 

Your kind donations will allow me to continue to provide free, public, participatory rituals and blessings for millions of folks in cities across the country and around the world.

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT THE 38th SEASON
OF
RITUALS
 IN CELEBRATION OF PERSONAL & PLANETARY TRANSFORMATION 

PLUS THIS NEWSLETTER! 

      

I thank you most gratefully for your generous support of my mission and message

and the help to continue   these mailings!  

Michele Berlin 

Lester Bower

Diane Blaha

Susan Corso  

Margi Flanagan

Judyth Hill

Daile Kaplan 

Elfie Knecht

Betty Krulik 

Marya Leonard

Dorothea Lutz 

Virginia McAllister

Linda Marks

Roberto Ramirez

Pamela Sichel

Gail Wasserman 

Mike Weiss    

Tracey Baum-Wicks   

Suzanne Zuckerman

Please make  

YOUR

Giving Thanks 

When we grow and the situations of our lives start to flow, when the going is good and the living gets easier, it seems only natural to be thankful. But what about all those times when nothing seems to budge? When we are stuck in the rush hour traffic jam of daily life and our bodies and souls start to feel like banged up bumper cars? When we are tested and pounded and pummeled. When things seem so crazy we wonder what do we have to be thankful for?

The greatest gift of the mind is, perhaps, perspective. Our reflective, rational side keeps us in balance, helps us from running away with our emotions. "Well," my best friend Daile once calmly commented in the midst of an intense work disaster that would normally have driven her quite mad, "at least nobody died." That's it, exactly. If we have a healthy sense of perspective, our lives become infinitely more precious to us and we automatically operate with an attitude of gratitude.

Lest you forget to be thankful at every turn for every gift, grand and small, here is a suggestion for A Moving Meditation of Appreciation.

Take a walk someplace nice. Alone.

With each step you take, name one good thing that you have in your life. Something for which you are thankful. Recite this ;lst aloud or silently.

Step. My health.      

Step. My friends

Step. My job.

Step. My dog.

Step. A new friend.

Step. A secure home.

Step. The clouds.        

Step. The beautiful moon.                  

Step. That certain memory.

Step. Not knowing war.

Step. Two feet.

This is a great cure for depression, self-pity and envy. Use it daily.  

We all have an amazing abundance of abundance in our lives. Let us give thanks.

What better time to connect with our gratitude than Thanksgiving? So many people sit at the table and dig into the feast without the tiniest awareness of appreciation. Others mutter a throw away "Grace." Why not use the holiday as it was intended - to express gratitude for our lives? How about going around the table before eating and inviting those gathered to share what they are thankful for?

Take a beautiful ear of dried corn and pass it around. As each person names a reason for giving thanks, she or he pulls off a kernel of the corn and places it into a dish. As the dish fills up with colorful kernels, it becomes a visible reminder of the bounty our lives, a graphic symbol of gratitude. This makes a perfect centerpiece for the occasion.

Or, as each guest talks about the harvest of her life, s/he lights a candle. With each candle, the light of love and appreciation grows, creating a glowing atmosphere of sincere cheer.

Thanksgiving is great time to reconnect with our roots, the stories of our own ancestors (who were probably neither pilgrims nor Turtle Islanders). It is important to celebrate the sacrifices made by those who came before us and enabled our lives. This Thursday, take some time to thank your forebearers - those who have helped to shape and form you with their inspiration: your family, your teachers, your mentors, your s/heroes. Those who made the world a better place.

Thank you Gramma, for always loving me best, no matter what, and for slipping me the occasional $5.bill.

Thank you Grandpa who I never met for being a revolutionary and setting the example for struggling for the greater good.

Thank you elementary school principal Wilma Bayes for championing the understanding, respect and celebration of cultural diversity, thus inspiring my life-long passion.

Thank you grad school instructor Sherman Drexler for seeing the real me and giving me permission to express my truest self and to be proud of my quirky individuality.

And thank YOU, my dear circle of celebrants, where ever you are, for sharing my reverence and awe for All That Is.  

And on and on.The list is endless, gratitude boundless.

Thank Goodness!

With gratitude and bountiful blessings,         

Talk Turkey 

We encourage people to keep the wishbone from their Thanksgiving Turkey in one piece. Make your wishes without breaking the bone. 

The game of breaking bones yields only winner and loser. Keeping  the wishbone whole is a prayer for peace.

A wishbone serves to protect a bird's heart and provides balance in flight - something we all need.  

 Welcome Morning  

By Anne Sexton

There is joy

in all:

in the hair I brush each morning,

in the Cannon towel, newly washed,

that I rub my body with each morning,

in the chapel of eggs I cook

each morning,

in the outcry from the kettle

that heats my coffee

each morning,

in the spoon and the chair

that cry "hello there Anne"

each morning,

in the godhead of the table

that I set my silver plate, cup upon

each morning.

All this is God

right here in my pea-green house

each morning

and I mean,

though often forget,

to give thanks,

to faint down by the kitchen table

in the prayer of rejoicing

as the holy birds at the kitchen window

peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,

let me paint a thank-you on my palm

for this God, this laughter of the morning,

lest it go unspoken.

The joy that isn't shared, I've heard,

dies young.

Ritual Round Up 

The 2013 Winter Solstice begins my 39th annual cycle of celebrating Celestially Auspicious Occasions. (1975-2012)

During this time, it has been my path and my privilege to produce hundreds of free, public, participatory ceremonies in more than 100 cities. These rituals celebrate the cycles of the cosmos and the seasons of life on planet Earth. They promote connection on three levels: among people, with the universe and with our own deepest, best selves. Connection, communion, compassion.

So far there have been:

76 solstices

76 equinoxes

152 cross-quarter days   

100+ full moons

100+ new moons

7 lunar eclipses

1 partial solar eclipse

1 total solar eclipse

90 chants for peace

12 tree plantings

5 blessings of the Halloween Parade

4 blessings of the Hudson River

A blessing of the Angel at Bethesda Fountain

A blessing of the Angel at Columbus Circle

A blessing of the Angel on the arch at Grand Amy Plaza

A blessing of the Viet Nam Memorial

A blessing of the Stock Exchange on Wall Street

A blessing of the IRS Headquarters

A blessing of Ground Zero

A blessing of the Fleet

A blessing of the NYC Olympic Ticker Tape Parade

A blessing of the presidential inauguration

A blessing of the United Nations

A satellite peace blessing orbiting in space

And counting!

The New Yorker magazine once dubbed me the "Unofficial commissioner of public spirit of New York City." They nailed it! That, precisely, is the perfect definition of my role as an Urban Shaman - my lifetime assignment from the Universe - to opportunities for connection, communion, communication, cooperation, commiseration, commitment and celebration.

But I cannot manage to sustain all of this alone. To be able to provide for such and extensive offering of spirited reverent celebrations, it really does take a village. Your kind donations will allow me to continue to provide free, public, participatory rituals and blessings for millions of folks in cities across the country and around the world.

I thank you most gratefully for your support of my mission and message.