Thanksgiving & Our Three Things
So there are 8 minutes left in Thanksgiving. Every year I find it funny how uncomfortable everyone seems with giving thanks. Even suggesting we go around the table and say something we are grateful for elicits groans and muttering. Honestly, I can’t understand it. We have so much in this country.
A couple years ago we instituted “gratefulness” training in our house. I call it training because it’s surprising how hard it can be to focus on what is good in life. This is what we do: each night during diner, we go around the table and say three things that made us happy during the day, three things we have to be grateful for. We are not allowed to judge or comment on other people’s things, we just listen. Guests are given the choice to participate or not. So far everyone has joined in.
Some days, it feels like a herculean task to come up with even one thing. But when you force yourself you discover there really are things to be grateful for even on the worst days- the beauty of a tree, a smile from your child, the taste of tea in the morning. The many things in life to be grateful for are easy to miss if you are not looking. Thanksgiving is a day which reminds us to look.
What does this have to do with art? Everything because making art is an act of gratitude.
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Thursday, November 22nd, 2007,
by Sybil and is filed under "Gratitude, Gratitude ".
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3 Responses “Thanksgiving & Our Three Things”
Thanks for reading my blog.
I think it’s a lovely tradition and a good way to open us up to abundance. I used to keep a gratitude journal, and sometimes on my blog I have listed the things I am grateful for.
~Sue O’Kieffe
What a lovely way of validating the positivity in our lives. I wish I’d heard of this when my family were young and gathered round our table BUT it’s not to late to start it on a personal level.
I’m grateful for having slept longer than I usually do.
I’m grateful that my leaky roof has been fixed.
I’m grateful for my new warm dressing gown…
These are just off the top of my head but the exercise really makes us look at our day and perhaps see what we could also have done differently or better. Super post.
This is beautiful. I do a prayer of thanks every night at bedtime, thinking over the day and remembering what I am grateful for. Yes, we have so much in this country, we need to always remember that.
Back to Eckhart: “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”