Pineridge Blog

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. For one thing, it is the only holiday that is always on Thursday, which means it is never on Sunday. Another thing I like about it is that it is a holiday of low expectations. Christmas brings with it a lot of impossible expectations of getting the right decora-tions up at the right time and giving the right gifts and cre-ating the right feeling, but Thanksgiving is simply based on a meal. I realize that hosting the meal can be stressful, but when it is dinnertime, hopefully even the hosts get to just to sit down with whoever can make it that year and enjoy being around the table together. And, what I like best, is that it is a holiday based on simply giving thanks.

More than one person has said, “I wish everyday was Christmas,” but I wish everyday was Thanksgiving. Not just because I like turkey and the pumpkin pie, but how much better things seem if you first give thanks for them. The Psalmist says, “This is the day the Lord has made let us be joyful and give thanks in it.” That’s it really, realizing that this day, this moment, this breath, this life, is created by God. What more reason do we need for giving thanks?

Anne Lamott writes, “We and life are spectacularly flawed and complex. Often we do not get our way, which I hate, hate, hate. But in my saner moments I remember that if we did, usually we would shortchange ourselves. Sometimes circumstances conspire to remind us or even let us glimpse how thin the membrane is between here and there, be-tween birth and the grave, between the human and the divine. In wonder at the occasional direct experience of this, we say, Thank you.”

Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Life is precious as it is. All the ele-ments for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle. Just be.” The only thing I would add is, “add give thanks.”