I love Thanksgiving... spending time with family... eating lots of food... watching the rest of the leaves fall. This year on Thanksgiving, we all trooped over to my sisters' house, where she had painstakingly orchestrated her first official hosting of this carb-filled holiday. Twenty-one people submerged her granite countertops with spreads of cranberry stuffing, marshmallow sweet potatoes, pecan cheesecake, perfectly cut carrots and cucumbers, red eye dressing, and gobs of turkey and ham.
To keep us all busy, my son exercised the spirit of giving by asking each couple if they would like a check for one thousand dollars. Of course, no one turned down this spectacular offer. So, he busied himself with making out his fake checks and signing them...
He soon realized that he was going to run out of checks and came back to his old standbys. "Mom and Dad," he whispered through his cupped hand. "I think you're going to have to split a check." We nodded solemnly and he bounced back to finish his John Hancocks.
At the tables, we each had a sheet of paper with a quote about gratitude on our plates... a nice touch. The quote read, "Gratitude turns what we have into enough. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." This is why I like this holiday so much. For a day, we all focus on the good, the possibilities, how precious the present is and how promising the future is.
By definition, gratitude means an awakening of the heart. My son seems have to have these little awakenings throughout the year and voices them regularly. When deciding between the homemade apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie, he turns to my mom, his grandma, and states, "I'm going to have what you brought because you do everything good." He's grateful to me on a regular basis - "I have the best mom ever! I just love my mom!" While part of me wonders what it is he wants in return for these fawning phrases, another part of me marvels at his easy transition into an "awakened" state.
It seems he looks at the bigger picture more than me. He is thankful at the drop of a hat... sings songs in the backseat about how much he loves his mommy and daddy. He declares out of the blue, "My teacher is just fantastic!" and doesn't stop there...
Why is it easier for kids to tap into their gratefulness and wonderment more than adults? They seem to be very certain and not easily confused. Yet another lesson we can learn from our successors. "Don't let the past weigh you down. Allow yourself to be happy in the present. And look forward to the future."
The chaos and confusion we let into our lives only block our view of what really matters. With gratitude, we still have dilemmas to sort through and problems to fix. But, it helps us sort through the difference between the facts and the truth. They are two very different things. The facts can change with circumstances and come and go... The truth never changes, and when we hold onto this, facts don't matter as much...
