At Thanksgiving time we participated in the good old fashioned going around the table and saying what we are thankful for tradition. The three year old, Luke, didn't quite understand. Each time (we did it on two occasions) he started rattling off his Christmas list instead.
Me: "What are you thankful for Luke?"
Luke: "I want a new bike and a blue combine!"
Me: "No, what do you already have that you like and are thankful for?"
Luke: "I want an owl costume too!"
Lists of what we want are always on the top of our minds. More money, a promotion, a new sweater, a vacation, to lose the weight, that awesome new phone, to be more like so and so...We want want want and if and when we get it we just want some more. Stopping wanting long enough to be thankful for something is not a thing we practice very often. I have obsessed with wanting that new pair of shoes for months. But when is the last time I obsessively thought about how grateful I am to have the 20+ pairs already in my closet?
I have always dreaded this routine of saying what we are all thankful for somewhat. Not that I am not thankful...it's just how do you say it without sounding trite. We go around the circle and we all begin to realize what really matters: family, friends, health, etc. It gets repetitive. And then there are ones that don't get mentioned quite as often: jobs, healthcare, safety nets, homes, food, clean water, heat, etc. I gets weighty and complicated. What about ALL of the people without these basic things? Then there is the list that almost never even gets a thought, ones that are too much to even utter: air to breathe, lungs that can breathe it, the sun that sustains all of life, our miraculous planet, etc.
For me Thanksgiving is such a vital holiday. I don't often give it the credit it deserves. It gets overlooked as I have my Christmas list on the tip of my tongue! My wish list of all the things I want but don't yet have. Instead, Thanksgiving is a time to realize what we do have, and maybe what we don't actually need. This year, I want to try to keep my focus on Thanksgiving. Keep my mind full of my list of gratitudes, not my wants.
