This week I’m thinking about gratitude.
And I’m pretty sure there are a few thousand other people who are thinking about it too.
We have turkeys to cook, potatoes to mash, recipes to peruse, and “light” ingredients to buy, because after all, we want to offset the 3,000,000 calories we’ll consume by the 60 we will save. Hey- every calorie counts. But more than the food we will consume, there is a pause for gratefulness we need.
Thanksgiving gives us a place on the calendar to do it.
On Facebook live this week, (https://www.facebook.com/LauriePolichShort/) I talked about how we don’t realize our gifts until they are no longer there. Gratitude helps us see them while they are.
Long ago, a mentor of mine used to begin our walks with a prayer that, on days where life was low, almost irritated me. “Thank you for legs that walk and arms that move” she’d cry out- and there were days when her words seemed trite. But when her husband, who had MS, began to struggle with his verbal and motor skills, suddenly legs that walk, and arms that move, and even voices that speak became gifts.
The truth is, nothing really changes when you are grateful– except your eyes. Gratitude doesn’t change the things you wish were different. It allows you to see the good in what you have. In One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp says “The practice of giving thanks is a way we practice the presence of God, stay present to His presence, and it is always a practice of the eyes. We don’t have to change what we see. Only the way we see.”
The discipline of giving thanks is the antidote to our wandering eyes.
So on this Thanksgiving day, pause to look at what’s in front of you.
You’ll be surprised what gratitude helps you see.
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