Actually, this is my favorite holiday of the year and I look forward to being with some very special folks, sharing memories and making new ones to share in the years ahead. But there are times when I look around at all the struggles going on in the world, our church, our country, and in my own experience - wars, hunger, corporate greed, a threatened environment, disease and violence against others for just being who they are meant to be- and I say Thanksgiving??? How much can I really be thankful for this year? As I was struggling with this thought, as often happens, a wonderful Carmelite sister that I was running a retreat with shared with me a writing she had come across. It spoke right to my heart and gave me a clear reason why I can have an "attitide of gratitude" this Thanksgiving. May it help to fill your heart with gratitude as well and may you have a blessed Thanksgiving Day.
A THANKSGIVING THOUGHT
We can't be thankful for all things-
at least not with any degree of honesty
at least not with any sense of integrity.
Some things are simply too painful, too sad,
too tragic to be thankful for them.
But we can be thankful in all things:
Thankful for family and friends
who stand beside us in difficult times.
Thankful for new thoughts and new feelings
that lead us through dark hours.
Thankful for signs of hope in an otherwise
bleak and barren landscape.
Thankful for the peace that wells up unexpectedly
from within when we are not at peace.
Thankful for a touch of humor to lighten
our heavy load.
There is so much this season
that we will remember
and for which we will indeed be thankful.
But when we cannot be thankful for all things,
grant us the grace to remember
that we can at least be thankful
in all things.
Deepen in us, gentle Lord, this faith
in your graciousness, this faith in our resiliency
that we may indeed be thankful. Amen.
-Author Unknown
