Thanksgiving 2019

First, (so you don’t think I am some type of a Thanksgiving Scrooge)…
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope you have a safe place to be.
And food enough on your table.
And whether you are alone or are gathering with family and friends, that love touches, if not fills, your life. And with all that, you find your own way to say Thank you.

And, while all that is true for me, I have to admit I am always a bit unsettled by Thanksgiving.
For two reasons…

First, maybe it is just the hype which leads up to it, but sometimes it seems we pour all of our thankfulness into one day. Here and done. Feast then famine. Thankfulness then back to normal which is more about what is mine and what I deserve rather than a deep and abiding sense of gratitude. If we celebrate Thanksgiving correctly we are good for another year.

Second, we make Thanksgiving and giving thanks about the blessings in our lives. And, by blessings we mean things. If we have a lot of things we are blessed. Food. Home. Family. Friends. Bank account. Options. Opportunities. If we have good china and an over abundance of food, we are blessed. If we have a home and family we are blessed. And because of that we should give thanks. Gratitude becomes something of a requirement. If all that is true, then the more you have the more grateful you are? And, the less you have the less grateful you are? I am not sure that is how it works. Or, is supposed to work. I am not wise enough to know, but my sense is that a gratitude which transforms and sustains our lives is rooted in something deeper and more important, and that the way we position and celebrate Thanksgiving distracts us from that more important search.

But, maybe I have it all wrong.
Happy Thanksgiving.