Hello All
Happy Friday to you!
Autumn is the time when we give thanks for all our Blessings. I am giving thanks to YOU this Thanksgiving – I am eternally grateful for your friendship, your Spirit, your Light and your Love. I am honored to be gifted with the friendship of us!
In the U.S. there are more and more of us who see the Sacred Messages surrounding us in plain sight. We know Godsign is found in the colors, numbers, animals, coincidences and so many times literally in the words surrounding each of us every day.
Such is the case in the abbreviation often used to refer to the United States of America – the US.
We shorten so much now. A dozen years ago I wouldn’t have know what you meant by lol . . . now I do . . . LOL
The US refers to all of us in the United States – literally the word us is written with each abbreviation. But using US has become so prevalent we don’t necessarily notice the us inherent in the abbreviation anymore.
It is innately implied that you and I are together in the word us but right now we don’t think of that when we see ‘US’. We forget the us in US.
United we stand
Divided we . . .
You know the ending.
Do you like to fall?
Do you like your bank account or the stock market to fall?
Do you like your hair to fall out or buildings to fall down?
There aren’t many things we like to fall – the word ‘down’ is usually implied. One of the few exceptions is what most of us have been taught to call this time of year. It used to be more often referred to as Autumn. I much prefer that word. But most now call this the Fall season. We had two towers fall in the Fall and it still affects all of us and all of the US. That’s when I went back to using the beautiful word Autumn as much as possible. We shortened the label we give to this season to a word that describes what leaves do in the Autumn – they fall – and I much prefer the leaves do it then us.
Please take note of how backward we have been taught about some words.
Most of you will certainly agree that one of the most wonderful, life-fulfilling, exciting and profound things we do in life is Love; to give love, be love, enjoy love. But we aren’t taught to say I wish to be lifted by love, I wish to rise in love, I wish to be warmed by love . . .
Most of us have been taught to say we wish to fall in love.
And then we wonder why it falls apart.
Do you really wish to fall in love?
There have been times that some ignorance, some bias, some event or some person tried to get the ‘us’ in the US to fracture – to break – to become divided. This is one of those times. We all must remember to see the us in the US.
In a 4 year span, over 750,000 US soldiers died. It was a not very civil Civil War. There are many sorrows still lingering from that war. One of the sad ironies to me about that time period is that the word civil was used at all. The US had forgotten and completely given up on being ‘civil’ with on another and the us in US fought itself. The 750,000 who died don’t include the civilians, its just the number of soldiers. The number originally was figured to be around 600,000 soldiers but later it was shown that the numbers given at that time were played down as much as possible. If you included the civilian population you would have come close to a million dead in less than 6 years.
To keep the United States UNITED . . . TO KEEP US UNITED.
Please take a moment this Thanksgiving and give thanks to them, their Spirit, their Lights, their Sacrifices to keep the United States united.
Problems can arise when the ‘us’ labels a ‘them’ and thinks the ‘them’ is against the ‘us’. We forget to even see or think about the ‘us’ in the US.
Hey you, out there on the road
Always doing what you’re told,
Can you help me?
Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don’t tell me there’s no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall . . .
You gotta love Pink Floyd.
United we stand together. When divided there is no together – no ‘we’ – no ‘us’ – no US – no United.
Since the unCivil War, the US is a better place for all of us, most of the time. We had to struggle to stay united in the truth that all men, regardless of culture or color, have the right to be free. We had to struggle to stay united in the truth that all woman, half our population, have the right to vote. We had to struggle to stay united in the truth that all children deserve to go together to good schools. We had to struggle to stay united in the truth that all people have a right to love whom they love. There are many ways the us in the US have become more united than ever.
Look at all the ways the US came together during the brutal hurricanes and devastating fires so many of us were affected by in the US. It can be easy to forget that all of us are We The People. And the US is all of ‘We The People’. And ‘We The People’ in the US are made of rainbows of color, with diverse opinions on everything and each of us holding deep beliefs. The strength of the US – the greatness of the US – shines brightly throughout the world when the diversity of all of us in the US is celebrated!!!
United we stand. Divided we fall.
The phrase can first be traced back to the wisdom of Aesop and his fables The Four Oxen and the Lion.
A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they fell a-quarreling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four.
United we stand, divided we fall.
In ‘modern’ times the phrase was first used by one of the founding father’s of the US, John Dickinson, in his revolutionary war song The Liberty Song, first published in July 1768. He wrote: “Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!”
Patrick Henry used the phrase in his last public speech, given in March 1799, denouncing The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions which wanted individual states to have the power to ignore the laws of the United States federal government. Henry declaimed, “Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” At the end of his oration, Henry fell into the arms of bystanders and was carried almost lifeless into a nearby tavern. Two months afterward he was dead.
Name calling, belittling, constant competition and deeply divisive ‘us against them’ politics, entertainment and religious beliefs all tear at the fabric of the US, the unity of the US and denies the fact that all of us are WE THE PEOPLE.
This next week, when you are united with loved ones, here in the US, giving thanks for all your blessings, please take a moment and give thanks that you live in the US where each of us is given the unalienable right to be, do, believe and enjoy our freedoms. That’s not true in many parts of our world. And there is no other country that can point directly to the greatness we have enjoyed and still have in America because we do eventually remember the innate power of us in the US.
We do deeply believe that United We Stand – us together, in the US.
I wish you a wondrous Thanksgiving and send sincere THANKS to YOU and to all of us in the US, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Hey You
by Pink Floyd
Hey you out there in the cold
Getting lonely getting old
Can you feel me? Hey you standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles
Can you feel me?
Hey you don’t help them to bury the light
Don’t give in without a fight.
Hey you out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone
Would you touch me?
Hey you with you ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out
Would you touch me?
Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I’m coming home.
But it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high,
As you can see.
No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.
Hey you, out there on the road
Always doing what you’re told,
Can you help me?
Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don’t tell me there’s no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.
©Roger Waters and Warner/Chappell Music, Inc
United We Stand
By The Brotherhood of Man
There’s nowhere in the world that I would rather be
Than with you my love
And there’s nothing in the world that I would rather see
Than your smile my love
For united we stand
Divided we fall
And if our backs should ever be against the wall
We’ll be together, together, you and I
For united we stand
Divided we fall
And if our backs should ever be against the wall
We’ll be together, together, you and I
And if the world about you falls apart my love
Then I’ll still be here
And if the going gets too hard along the way
Just you call, I’ll hear
The Liberty Song
lyrics by John Dickinson, Founding Father of the US
Come, join hand in hand, brave Americans all,
And rouse your bold hearts at fair Liberty’s call;
No tyrannous acts shall suppress your just claim,
Or stain with dishonor America’s name.
In Freedom we’re born and in Freedom we’ll live.
Our purses are ready. Steady, friends, steady;
Not as slaves, but as Freemen our money we’ll give.
Our worthy forefathers, let’s give them a cheer,
To climates unknown did courageously steer;
Thro’ oceans to deserts for Freedom they came,
And dying, bequeath’d us their freedom and fame.
In Freedom we’re born and in Freedom we’ll live.
Our purses are ready. Steady, friends, steady;
Not as slaves, but as Freemen our money we’ll give.
Their generous bosoms all dangers despis’d,
So highly, so wisely, their Birthrights they priz’d;
We’ll keep what they gave, we will piously keep,
Nor frustrate their toils on the land and the deep.
In Freedom we’re born and in Freedom we’ll live.
Our purses are ready. Steady, friends, steady;
Not as slaves, but as Freemen our money we’ll give.
The tree their own hands had to Liberty rear’d;
They lived to behold growing strong and revered;
With transport they cried, “Now our wishes we gain,
For our children shall gather the fruits of our pain.”
Chorus
Swarms of placemen and pensioners soon will appear
Like locusts deforming the charms of the year;
Suns vainly will rise, showers vainly descend,
If we are to drudge for what others shall defend.
Chorus
Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all,
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall;
In so righteous a cause let us hope to succeed,
For heaven approves of each generous deed.
Chorus
All ages shall speak with amaze and applause,
Of the courage we’ll show in support of our Laws;
To die we can bear, but to serve we disdain.
For shame is to Freedom more dreadful than pain.
Chorus
This bumper I crown for our Sovereign’s health,
And this for Britannia’s glory and wealth;
That wealth and that glory immortal may be,
If She is but Just, and if we are but Free.
Chorus