I was sitting down to write a piece about Thanksgiving and realized there was nothing more I wanted to add than what I said last year -- there are some things I don't want to change, my feelings on gratitude and Thanksgiving being one. So here this is again:
Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for all the many blessings, big and small, we have in our lives: our family, friends, health, freedom, life's many gifts. To be grateful, sure, for all the grandeur of big accomplishments, fulfilling relationships, exotic adventures (I just came back from a big one, as all of you know), a shooting star or a breathtaking rainbow. But what about feeling grateful for an "ordinary" day, those too are full of limitless magic and countless wonders.
We all do a pretty good job, I think, being thankful for the big stuff, but what about the moments in between? What about being grateful for every moment which is precious, to be thankful for a beating heart, while we do the zillions of things in our day and even in giving thanks for them we forget that simple truth, that we are on borrowed time and every moment we get is a gift which we must appreciate. Don't rush past life, even in your gratitude, if that makes sense, savor and take in the profound, the simple, the answers and questions, all that is obvious, but that which is hidden as well. Let gratitude permeate your being and fill you up, you need not even know why. I have found that just feeling grateful reveals to you things that you should be thankful for that you had not even noticed.
Kahlil Gibran wrote, "all you have shall some day be given, therefore give now that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors." Having the opportunity to be grateful is something to be thankful for in and of itself. I think life teaches us that most things worth having are things we have to nurture, search for, things that are often concealed at first. Don't give thanks just for the stuff you know you should give thanks for, but give thanks for the unknown blessings that are around the corner. Search in your difficult days, troubled relationships, moments and circumstances that seem rough, search for the light always lurking below the surface. There is something to be learned from every moment.
A 19th century Rabbi, Menahem Mendel of Kotzk once asked some visiting scholars "Where does God dwell?" You can sub beauty gratitude, love, for God if you like. Where does God dwell? The scholars laughed and answered what they thought was an obvious question I guess, "God is everywhere, of course. The whole earth is full of his glory." The rabbi shook his head and suggested what I think is an even greater truth, "God dwells wherever man lets him in." True, that things to be thankful for abound all around us, but we have to let them in. Make sure in this season of Thanksgiving, and throughout the year, the door to your heart is always open.
Comments (1)
God always knocks, but He will not enter until we open the door and invite Him in. He is a gentleman like that. Free will. He wants to be with us more than we could ever imagine. But He will never force Himself on us.
It is time that I move on. A new job calls. I must proove myself all over again.
Thanks to all citizenhunter bloggers for discussing and debating with me. I learned alot.
Good bye (for now), good luck, and God bless.
Todd
Posted by: Todd Levari on November 20, 2007 18:06