“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” ― Meister Eckhart
When we think about Thanksgiving, we most often think about sitting around a feast with family and friends and giving thanks for all the abundance we have. Fair enough.
However, how often do we express gratitude for all the things, big and small, that we experience every day. Do we simply wait until the last Thursday in November, and offer a blanket thanks for all the good we experienced during the past year.
It’s easy to remember the big things, the surviving a serious operation, the birth of a baby, the closing of a particularly difficult deal, a marriage, the meeting of a new friend. But what about the little things that make each day worth living, the warmth of the sun on your face on a spring day, the way a dog kisses you for no reason, how about the extra three seconds the light stayed green so you could get through.
We, if we are well bred and polite, thank people who hold the door, or who offered a hand when we needed it. The word thank you just rolls off the tongue like it was programmed. It’s expected. If we don’t, folks get the idea that we don’t ‘care.’ We say it so easily, so conveniently, I wonder if we really are thankful or simply make it an automatic part of our lives. It’s like the sign on the construction site apologizing for any inconvenience their activity and noise is bringing you. The sign went up before the construction started and will be the last one removed. Do they think that by simply putting up the sign that I will feel better at 3 am when the construction sounds fill my bedroom.
When we pray at the beginning of the Thanksgiving feast and offer than blanket thanks for all the good that has beset us, has it become just another sign along the way.
The question I will ask you, fair reader, is just how do you SHOW gratitude through your actions every day of your life. Do you compliment a person on the look of their dog, or the new jacket or hat. Do you surprise a friend with an extra donut or cup of coffee at work. Do you offer a smile or hug when its least expected.
When you say your daily prayers, do you thank the good Lord for all the little things, do you even remember what they were. A Harvard University study found that people who expressed gratitude for little things as well as big ones were happier. It suggested one make daily lists of things that they were grateful for from that day. At least then you would have to fumble with the preprogrammed prayer when you speak to your maker.
Maybe this Thanksgiving can be a time not only of thanks and gratitude, but a time of change. A time to begin to show that gratitude daily for all the things we are thankful for every day.
Have you thought about starting each day with a thank you and making it a habit? If you do it, does your blood pressure go down? Are you more creative? And thus, attract people like a magnet with your energy of gratitude.
Happy Thanksgiving 2022
Parking Today
