Small cheer and great welcome make a merry feast. William Shakespeare.
We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. Ritual Chant, religion unknown.
This is the time my friends for Thanksgiving in Canada. To my American friends and colleagues, y'all have to wait for a few more weeks. However the sentiments hold true day to day, so please don't stop reading, ok? Maybe it is and should be a single day event, and can be conceptualized much like religion.
How can that be? That is being that often with religion we “do our duty” for an hour a week and then as soon as we get out of the parking lot its time to vent and bring back out the person that we are. No piousness, but hypocrisy. Sad isnt it? So instead of giving thanks for 1 day of the year, here is that challenge, that being to appreciate the smallest things of life at point of need. There truly are no atheists in the foxholes. Would be such a horrible thing to biatch, moan and whine your way through life and only see the positives when tragedy or the end of days tends towards rolling the credits of the movie that was your life.
Thanksgiving this year, as it should be every year is a time for reflective, meditation and appreciation. That is an appreciation of person, animal and crystal…all living things that co-exist on this rolling blue marble before its too late. Perhaps more of a spiritual perspective would help give us all some clarity.
Oh my friends, it is so easy to give Thanks for the good things in life and the plentiful bounties that are there and the ready access to so many amazing and incredible things and gifts that we have. For the merry feasts and family and loved ones. For the opening of hockey season (if it ever comes) and the roof over our head and all of the plusses on the positive side of the ledger of life. But there is so much more than that to give thanks for, in the life, respiration, colours, sights, sounds and all the blessings and interactions that we are able to sense and touch. A time for blessings and peace if we so choose that if handled correctly, allows our true angelic wings to spread that will ripple out benefits and healings in concentric circles. Not negatives, only positives…yet sadly too many choose the hard route of only focusing on the negatives. That is that there is anger, resentments, feelings of being put down, left out etc etc. L:ife isnt fair to YOU when you are full of negatives. Waaah you.
But this is also a time to give Thanks for the challenges in life, the red ink in the ledger in life that we have experienced and continue to experience. The ledger of life will balance out at the end when the summative tally is assessed and the call to accounting is made and the ultimate withdrawal. But how many actually look at how they handle the challenges in life? How do you deal with these "unknown blessings?" Can you believe I could call a challenge an unknown blessing? The blasphemy of it all! If you think or are thinking this, you my friend are losing out big time. Missing life, opportunities and frankly have a little too much self-entitlement for my liking. Good or bad, richer or poorer, sickness in health we should always be learning, always taking stock.
It takes a fortitude and culture of self courage and self-drive to tackle the negatives from a learning perspective. If you want any supportive evidence my friends, look in the mirror and do a bit of self-reflection and mindfulness on the moment. You are where you are at this point of time of reading this because of all the goods in your life, AND the challenges. If you get stuck in a rut of challenges, you may need to reflect on why you keep getting the same negative outcomes. <bit of a hint here.... try something different!> You dont have to LIKE the negatives (consider masochism and its linked psychopathologies via root cause analysis) but you DO have the power to decide HOW they affect you and What you are going to do about them!
The expression goes that you dont appreciate something until its gone. Thats why you need to live the moment, seize the day and please take nothing for granted. Whether it be a voice, hug, sensation, feeling, sight or smell... never take it for granted. Life is not designed to be a fight, and uphill battle that we lose, but a gift.... a present. Dont lose out.
To all the happiness and sadness, wins and challenges and positives and negatives.... thank you. Love is an intelligent concern for others. I learned that a decade ago and one of the critical learnings of my life.
Be yourself, often.
--- Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure October 2012
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