For most of us, Thanksgiving is a brief respite in the hectic pace of our daily routines. It is a time to relax, to eat, to enjoy family, and the abundance of the blessings that we have.
Thanksgiving calls us to something else, something bigger and more transcendent than just one day of celebration, one day in which we pause to to give thanks for the good things that have been brought into our lives.
The spirit of Thanksgiving, the essence of this day, calls us to be thankful in all things for all things in our daily existence. Not just on this one special day, but every day.
For some of us, being thankful is difficult. Some have absorbed and endured the harshness of life. The stark reality of death has touched our lives; loved ones lie sick, some with little prospect of recovery; some are enduring dire economic hardship, some are desperately lonely.
In those trying times, it is difficult, if not impossible, to feel thankful. Gratitude is not an easy emotion to summon in troubling times.
It is in those dark times that pausing to remember and recount the good things that we enjoy is essential. Know this- that even in the darkest of times that each of us experience, there are still blessings for which we can be thankful. A kind or encouraging word that lifts us up, a smile that is given freely, and expression of support are all little things that lift us up. Little things for which we can be thankful.
An attitude of thankfulness opens us up to receive these blessings and more. A thankful heart keeps bitterness from encroaching and stealing the joy of living that each of us should have.
My hope for each of us is that the spirit of this day will abide with us every day, that our hearts will be attuned to the good that occurs around us and to us each day. Even the days that seem so dark and without joy.
May our hearts enjoy a spirit of Thanksgiving every day.
And that, my friends, is my view.
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