Aging Capriciously

Holiday time or Holy-Day time?  Each holiday season, I wonder what time people are really celebrating. Christmas becomes X-Mass.  Holy-days become holidays.  Days of remembrance become good days to host a backyard barbecue and Thanksgiving simply becomes the springboard to “the shopping season.”  The big kickoff being “Black Friday.”  Where is our soul? Where is the spirit in our natures?  Is time off meant to be simply another day to watch the “big game.” Are holy-days meant to be spent shopping? Is Black Friday now the most important day of the year? Is Santa Claus a Good Christian because he gives toys to tots?  Was that Jesus Christ’s message, to spend Christmas roasting chestnuts round an open fire singing Jingle Bell Rock?

Please note, it is not my intention to sound like the Grinch or to “cast stones” at others. We all need time to relax and we all need time for fun and games. However, when do we say enough? What about the meaning of the time that we are granted? Do we simply see our time off as a holiday or do we embrace this gift of time to remember our dead, our veterans, our special leaders and those that helped pave the way for the lives we can live today. These “holidays” we are given each year, whether in remembrance of a religious or civic event should not pass by without our taking the time to remember what their true meaning is.

Thanksgiving in my opinion is meant as a time to remember the blessings that we have been given. Regardless of how much or how little we have, there is generally something we can be grateful for in our lives.

I have so much but I am continually looking at people that are more successful, make more money, have more friends and are in better condition.  Yet once I pause for just a few seconds to reflect on my blessings, I realize that I have the greatest wife in the world and I am healthy and moderately well off.  I have six happy and wonderful grandchildren.  I have more friends than I have time to spend with.  In short, I have nothing to complain about. I have nothing to be selfish or greedy or jealous about.  I have been blessed with a wonderful life but I hardly ever stop to say “thank you God for what you have given me.”  I am usually too worried about what I have not been given.

This Thanksgiving, take the time to say a prayer of thanks.  Ask all present to thank God or whomever or whatever you believe in for the gifts and the life you are living.  This year, I will also ask all present at my Thanksgiving table to take a minute to express what they are thankful for in their lives; then we will dive in on the turkey, stuffing, and dressing.

The true meaning of Thanksgiving lies in being grateful for what you have.

Time for Questions:

Do you know a prayer of thanks? What is your favorite prayer? Will you make time for a prayer of gratitude this Thanksgiving?

Life is just beginning.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  — Melody Beattie