The first American Thanksgiving took place in
Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, when the pilgrims, thankful for their
bountiful harvest in the new land and their Indian friends, gathered together
to praise God and to express their gratitude. Since then, Thanksgiving has
traditionally been a day to celebrate all the things for which we are grateful.
One day, out of three hundred sixty-five days in a year, when many families sit
around their dining room tables, hold hands and tell, one at a time, what
they’re grateful for. Which is wonderful but. . . .
What about the other three hundred sixty-four days?
We’re all busy living our lives; we can easily get so caught up in work,
writing and/or other responsibilities that we take things and people for
granted. We forget to stop to appreciate all that we have and to be thankful
for our many blessings. We need to remember that each day is a gift, a present.
Do we get up in the morning, thankful to be alive?
Are we determined to make the most of each day or do we slog through life,
bitter and complaining? Do we notice all the little things that go wrong in our
day or do we focus on the ones that go right? There’s so much beauty in the
world. Do we take time to appreciate and enjoy nature? Do we tell the important
people in our lives how much they mean to us? Do we stop to give thanks (and
credit) to others who encourage and support us?
I think of gratitude as an attitude we should
strive to possess and express every day, not just on Thanksgiving. In our
complicated world, often, the simplest words can have the greatest meaning. The
following lines, from a poem I learned as a child, sum it up. “Thank you for
the world so sweet. Thank you for the food we eat. Thank you for the birds that
sing. Thank you, God, for everything.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
