Tuesday, November 23, 2010

What I'm Grateful For

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the idea of a day set aside to share food and companionship with others as we celebrate gratitude. There is no big commercialization of Thanksgiving – witness the shift in the stores from Halloween directly to Christmas. Thanksgiving’s value to the consumer society is only in its passing to the shopping extravaganza of Black Friday.

So I love this day. I don’t have to buy presents or send out cards. I don’t have to fight crowds in the mall. I just get to be grateful.

So why don’t I feel more grateful this Thanksgiving? I can rattle off numerous blessings, big and small. By most anyone’s standards, I haven’t a care in the world. And yet my heart is heavy.

Perhaps because people near and dear to me are approaching this holiday season without loved ones who have recently died – a young husband and father, a wife of many seasons, a daughter. Perhaps because our political leaders continue to engage in tactics and rhetoric that would be comical if they weren’t so destructive. Perhaps because I know that last night as the temperature plummeted, there were homeless people in my neighborhood looking for a place to stay warm and dry, or perhaps to just stay alive.

So how can I take this heaviness and find the gratitude in it? I can be even more humbly grateful for the blessings I have, knowing how fleeting and precious our treasured moments are. I can be grateful for awareness of other people’s suffering. I can be grateful for an open heart to feel compassion. I can be grateful for the abundant resources I can share through contributing to shelters and food banks. I can show my gratitude by saying thank you to as many people as possible. And I can tell the people who bless my life how much I love them.

I hope that all of you find joy in this holiday of thankfulness.

I would like to share a blessing that someone sent to me recently.

“Here is my prayer – that you are given at least daily a reminder from at least one of those to whom your presence on this Earth has been important that you are remembered and that you are loved.”

9 comments:

  1. Everyone with whom I come into contact is important to me. I wish them all Happy Holidays!

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  2. Oh, that is exactly right! That is the best Thanksgiving message I have seen yet! Thanks, JJ!

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  3. Very thought provoking. Found you via over 40 bloghop. Following.

    Looking forward to reading more. Happy Thanksgiving.

    Jewel

    http://jewelzfrontporch.blogspot.com/

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  4. Thanks, Jewel. Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!

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  5. Nice post, it is important to always count our blessings

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  6. Galen: Beautiful words and a great approach to gratitude. I really appreciated what you suggested about looking past all that is wrong and finding those things to be grateful for. I think that is what it is all about. Happy Thanksgiving.

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  7. Hello Again,

    Hope you are having an awesome day, I just want to thank you for visiting my blog and your gracious comment, have a happy thanksgiving.

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  8. A thought-provoking post, Galen. I am enjoying going back and looking through your blog.

    Thanks for visiting my blog, and I wish you a very happy holiday!

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  9. I really like how you took the sad feelings you were experiencing and translated them into deeper gratitude. Great post.

    I am a new follower. Thanks for visiting my blog.

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