Thanksgiving is an original holiday where the sole purpose is to pause and be grateful. How utterly unique and yet so valuable as a practice. I refer to gratitude as a practice, since it is a habit worth cultivating. None of us needs to make a mental note of the things that worry us, disappoint us, or awaken us at 3:00 am. These dark thoughts are constantly lurking, showing up when least welcome. But to put thought and energy into what’s good about our lives and story, now that is a different matter. It still amazes me that neurologists have discovered that cultivating the practice of gratitude actually changes our brain neuroplasticity. It feeds on itself, gratitude begets gratitude. So you might consider starting a gratitude notebook to record matters large and small for which you have been graced. (Grace comes from the Latin word for ‘unmerited or undeserved favor.’)
The first Thanksgiving was actually an autumn harvest feast held in New England, shared in 1621 between the Wampanoag people and the English colonists known as Pilgrims. Yet what struck me was what President Lincoln did in issuing a proclamation in 1863 to all Americans to set aside and observe on the last Thursday of November, a day of Thanksgiving. As the brutal and bloody civil war was drawing to a close, he appealed to our ‘better angels.’ Gratitude draws us to a higher place.
One of Lincoln’s fallen soldiers had a note tucked in his coat pocket. It is a good reminder to focus on what matters.
‘I am Blessed’
I am blessed I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered;
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
An English friend who went to that ‘other’ English university, Cambridge, was fond of sighting the poet George Herbert. ‘Lord, you have given me so much. Give me one more thing, a grateful heart.’
With immense gratitude,
Doug