Thanksgiving

I can not think of a more needed holiday for the soul, except of course the birth of our Savior. What a splendid idea to take a day, a full 24 hours and devote it to the art of giving thanks. Yes, I said art. I am not sure many of us know what it truly means to give thanks, me in particular. It is something that I have been contemplating in this season of my life, which happens to correspond with a season of Thanksgiving.

I used to think that Thanksgiving was about saying thank you for all that I had and loved. I still do believe this but I am not all that certain if that is what is at the heart of Thanksgiving. You see when you have to take stock of what you have that makes you happy you inevitably encounter a dark corner in our hearts that always wants to take heed of all the "I do not haves" in ones life. You know, the things that keep us pushing on in the daily drudge of life. Hoping that the next job, the next paycheck, the next lottery ticket is going to put us in closer reach of whatever we are lacking so that we can fill that void in our shallow hearts, in hope that it will satisfy a desire to "have". Please tell me I am not alone on this one.

So I stopped and just looked at the work Thanks.....GIVING. There it is. The lynch pin. Not thanks saying, not thanks acknowledging, but thanksgiving. Maybe thanksgiving is something that you give away. But wait, if Thanksgiving is about saying thank you for what I have, why in the world would I give it away...its mine. That is when it hit me, Thanksgiving may not be about saying thank you for the haves in your life, perhaps its about giving to others the best part of you. The content, joyous, gracious part of you. If you notice, contentment, joy and graciousness require no possessions. If fact, one can be lacking a great deal and still be in possession of the aforementioned qualities. In fact, the miracle element of contentment, joy and graciousness is that the act of giving them, causes a  not a deficit in oneself but surplus. This could possibly mean that one can not truly be thankful unless one has already given thanks. It is like one of those superluminal particles that goes back in time to endow us with thankfulness based on what we do prior to having that attribute in our repertoire. (Sorry, I have to go there. Got to put some of my limited particle physics knowledge to use somewhere.)

So I would like to think that Thanksgiving is not just about saying thank you for what I have, but a state of mind that choose on a daily basis. I want to be thankful period. Not for anything that I own. Not for anyone in my life. I want to be thankful because. Because that is what we were made to be. I want to give others my thanks by sharing my joy, treating them with a gracious spirit and displaying a contentment that hinges only on the fact that I chose to be.

This is a work in progress, obviously. I still am tempted to just spew off a list of items and people that I am thankful for and call it a day. But I want to live a life that is always eager to give my thanks to anybody, for any reason and definitely for any season.

Have a blessed and joyous Thanksgiving to everybody.