Thanksgiving

The Many Gifts of Gratitude

Any catalog of the world’s greatest gifts must surely include gratitude. Leaning into the light of praise and thanksgiving uplifts the world and energizes the heart. It expresses confidence in the goodness that abounds all around, even amid the challenges of life.

We can rant in despair or we can marvel in delight. We can join the chorus of naysayers, or we can sing songs of inspiration. We can darken the world with complaint or we can shower the world with praise. The choice is ours, in every moment of our lives.

Our grandmothers were right, of course. Counting blessings is the quickest way to change a mood and the surest way to change a mind. Gratitude softens, sweetens, fuels and sustains. It affirms all that is good and right in the world and it acts as a counterweight to life’s inevitable challenges. It is a refusal to be subsumed by darkness, even when the world grows dim.

Gratitude is an expression of humility and connection, as we acknowledge the many ways our small bodies are bonded to the greater arc of life. Gratitude requires a heart that is willing to be touched. It requires eyes that are capable of seeing beyond complaint. It embodies an acknowledgment that world has gifts that are far greater than any one of us alone could conjure or create. And because gratitude longs to be shared, it is a practice that reaches across the great divide toward mutual experience and amazement.

We say thank you to those who support and enliven our days in clear and obvious ways, those who ease our burdens and lighten our loads. We offer gratitude to those who point us toward life’s many wonders, right here and right now. And over time we learn that, with a particular slant of vision, every single moment offers gifts waiting to be named. We acknowledge experiences that reveal our fragility and imperfection, pointing us toward our growing edge. We say thank you even to those painful experiences that have taught us how bloom, to love, in ways we never might have known.

In this way, gratitude becomes a practice of hopefulness and faith. It is an acknowledgement that we can hold in our arms both confusion and delight, both regret and hope, both worry and wonder. Rather than being a refusal to acknowledge life’s difficulties, it is an understanding that no matter what, we can lean in to the light. So, yes to a good heart that holds all of life within it, and still finds the strength to rejoice!

We could begin right here, right now. We might lift our gaze away from complaint and toward thanksgiving. We might name one small wonder we love about the world. And then, perhaps, another, and another, and another, until our list becomes a prayer, a blessing, a song.

Good food on the table. A warm home. Companionship in all its improbable forms. A kind word. A hand of support. A forgiving hug. A happy memory. A long exhale. Simple amazement that we are here, together, sharing this space together. A warm nod to those who aren’t here but are still with us, in our minds and in our hearts. And, of course, a thank you to those invisible hands of support that appear, just when we need them most, to hold us when we can no longer step forward our own.

And let's not keep our rejoicing to ourselves. Let's pass it around, letting the words "thank you" slip easily from our lips. Let's write thank you letters and leave secret gifts at the doorstep and place flowers on the kitchen table. Let’s shower the planet with kind words and tender thoughts and wishes for wellbeing and peace. Let's call upon our own light to ease the darkness that so easily creeps in.

Let’s keep the gratitude flowing until it no longer feels like a practice but simply becomes who we are. We stand ready, with wakeful eyes and tender hearts. We marvel. We open ourselves to awe and connection. We are here. We are awake. We are alive. We are fueled by our song of praise and thanksgiving, which wakens us and tilts the world toward goodness, toward love, toward the greater light that carries us all.