Positive Spirituality

THANKSGIVING: BEING GRATEFUL FOR IT ALL

This year, we will come to Thanksgiving with smiles as broad as our appetites. Oh we may not begin with the singing of “This Land is My Land,” or “American the Beautiful.” Our scope of interest may not be able to push beyond the delicious aromas of the day’s cooking locked in this blessed gathering home. It may have time for the urgency of hugs while looking beyond to the delights and our favorite pies. Yet, this day is not without its knotted threads of tensions; the young adult relative who is still whining like a child because he wants to eat before everyone gets there; the other guest who complains about the late comers. Then there is the host who must make it all work.

Minor ingredients such as these may arise from Thanksgiving. However, let them all be flavored with the depth of thankfulness. The object of the day may seem to fill the stomach but it is most successful when it fills the soul. The true light of simply being grateful for being alive and having whatever faculties, friends, family and loved ones we do. Some of our beloved may have fallen by the wayside during the years. Thanksgiving is the moment of remembrance of their many kindnesses and the letting go of their faults.

We will never be able to match the gift of life God has given us. We will never use all the opportunities we have to make our lives all that it can be, but we don’t need to be lacking during this time, to be as grateful as we can be for what we still have in relationships and possessions and most of all, in God’s continuous support of us.

BLESSING

May this Thanksgiving be the enrichment of your soul’s greater expression of the good vested in it.