My favorite Thanksgiving saying is "Never let what you do not have or should not have or cannot have ever lessen your thanksfulness for all that you do have."
Thanksgiving is such a marvellous time for reviewing the past year and thinking of the many blessings we all have received. At our house (or alternate location as we had this year in Arizona) we always go around the table to say what things we appreciate most. My list was long this year including better business, our daughter's on-time college graduation, the many times we were able to be together this year despite the long distances, health, a full belly and a warm bed, fun trips, the support of friends when I needed it most, etc. I ended with the statement "I am most thankful that I survived this year." It was a grand one and a harrowing one all at the same time.
Isn't that true of much of life? Dickens said "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." You have to take the sour with the sweet and perhaps the trick to both happiness and gratefulness is learning to balance the extremes and to appreciate when you are on the mountaintop of even the simplest things. We so often miss the whole journey by wishing bad times away, focusing on the destination instead. Such joy can be found in the everyday if we just stop to look and listen.
Thanksgiving is such a marvellous time for reviewing the past year and thinking of the many blessings we all have received. At our house (or alternate location as we had this year in Arizona) we always go around the table to say what things we appreciate most. My list was long this year including better business, our daughter's on-time college graduation, the many times we were able to be together this year despite the long distances, health, a full belly and a warm bed, fun trips, the support of friends when I needed it most, etc. I ended with the statement "I am most thankful that I survived this year." It was a grand one and a harrowing one all at the same time.
Isn't that true of much of life? Dickens said "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." You have to take the sour with the sweet and perhaps the trick to both happiness and gratefulness is learning to balance the extremes and to appreciate when you are on the mountaintop of even the simplest things. We so often miss the whole journey by wishing bad times away, focusing on the destination instead. Such joy can be found in the everyday if we just stop to look and listen.
My hope for the time I have before the next Thanksgiving is that I remember to be grateful every day not just one day in November. I want to remember each day that life is full of adjustments and changes and sorrows but also full of joy and love and hope.
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