What are you thankful for?

Thursday 28thNovember is Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Unfortunately what they’re being thankful for is obtaining their independence from Britain! Thankfully I think that we’re all over it by now and seem quite good friends. I wish we had a Thanksgiving Day in Britain, in fact all over the world. Apart from being a good excuse to eat turkey with all the trimmings, not to mention Pumpkin pie, I reckon we would all benefit from a day when we took time to think about what is good in our life and perhaps consider what we might change to improve the bad! 

Modern life seems so busy with everyone busy trying to juggle family, work and friends. Along with the expectation that, we should be exercising to keep ourselves healthy. For many of us the stress of trying to fit in exercise probably cancels out any benefit we obtain from exercising! With all this going on its no wonder we sometimes lose sight of what’s good about our lives, often focusing instead on what isn’t. 

I don’t think we should be too hard on ourselves about this. I think its part of the human condition. When we go through hard times, very often we say to ourselves that in future we won’t stress about the small things. In my experience that does happen for a while. But being human, as time passes I eventually start to let little things get to me again; until the next crisis!  

That’s why I think it would be great if we had our own Thanksgiving Day. A day when we put aside all our problems and worries and just spend some time with our families and friends. It would be like Christmas without the hassle and stress of buying presents! Of course there would have to be some ground rules such as agreeing that everyone contributes to the meal and not leave it to one person. A ‘bring and share’ meal perhaps. 

I’m not suggesting that everyone should necessarily sit around sharing what they’re thankful for! That could be a disaster! But if we knew that it was a day for being thankful then, just as at Christmas and other types of special days we think about our loved ones, both with us and whose who are not, we could spare some time to pause and reflect on what we’re thankful for.

Tomorrow I’m going to have my own Thanksgiving Day. I’m going to make a point of thinking about everything I’m grateful for. I might even make a list! I would love it if anyone reading this joins me and maybe we can start our own Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!