a meaningful reflection for thanksgiving
Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday about gratitude, about love, about togetherness, and about family. It’s a great occasion that not only brings people together to celebrate the end of the harvest, but also gives them a chance to look each other in the eye and share a few magical moments of warmth, affection, and joy that are hard to come by in this fast-paced world we live in.
But why reserve thankfulness for just one day, and not make it a conscious thought for the remaining 364 days? Why not go beyond a particular day, weekend, or holiday season and practice gratitude and togetherness on a consistent basis?
As I have discussed before, Thanksgiving needs to become a lifestyle and a life-long discipline that we practice every day. In that way, we will be able to collect and cherish more moments of goodness and kindness in the course of our lifetimes, hence living a much more meaningful and fulfilling life.
Let’s make expressing gratitude and appreciation a daily discipline. Let’s commit to sharing our most precious resources — our time, our attention, and our presence — with the people that matter most to us freely and openly without any hesitation, worry, or expectation.
So, on this special occasion, I’d love to share a beautiful passage by Rebecca Hale on the same subject. Please read it either by yourself or with your loved ones as you celebrate this holiday together.
There is so much to be thankful for each day.
Today we take the time to pause and acknowledge this special season of harvest and its traditions of sharing with those less fortunate.
We take time to notice the labor of others, from farm to table, that culminates in this feast.
Today we pause to recognize how fortunate we are and to be grateful for the bounty we share with friends, family and loved ones, be they with us or far away.
We take pause to celebrate that we each can and do make meaning for our own lives; by the deeds we do, to make the world a better and a more humane home for all. Every day offers us the opportunity to make a difference not just in our own lives but in the lives of others. We offer our hands our minds and our hearts to help all those who seek to make the world a better place.
Today we take time to rejoice not just with the food we share but also the give and take of love and compassion that we experience each day.
We are Thankful to each of you for being here to share today with us.
PS: I want to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude and say a big THANK YOU to you, my dear friend. I truly appreciate you joining me each and every day and being a part of my journey and this wonderful community of daily achievers. Helping and serving you keeps me inspired and energized, and I’m immensely grateful for your presence and your support. I promise that I will continue to inspire, motivate and educate you with this blog and future projects.
Happy Thanksgiving! Have a great time today with your near and dear ones.
