For all of my international readers, who may not be familiar with American customs/holidays, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. A wonderful holiday in which families come together to celebrate the origins of our nation, say one thing they are thankful for(usually involving the food they are about to eat), eat turkey, and pass out while watching football/Christmas movies/inexplicably lame holiday specials or whatever.
So here is a brief history lesson: 'pilgrims' from Europe travel to the 'New World' (aka USA) and experience hard times during the later months in the year. Some Native Americans decide to help these somewhat naive travelers and share their food with them. And so the first thanksgiving. It is a celebration of food; now don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of turkey, etc., but I think we get so caught up in all of that and we forget to take time and genuinely reflect on our gratitude.
This thanksgiving has been interesting in that regard; my friend Meagan decided that we should take the time every day to say something that we are thankful for. We started this about two weeks ago and so I have listed at least 10 things that I was thankful for and it's not even officially thanksgiving yet! Now granted, some of those those were really specific to things going on in my life at the time, but isn't that the point anyway? That we should be always thankful for the things in our lives and to learn to live in appreciation for what we do have.
As I said before, I love Leave it to Beaver; well, I was watching an episode today and it was about Wally's birthday. (For those who don't know, Wally is Beaver's older brother). In it, Beaver was supposed to spend his $6.95 and get Wally a present, a camera that had a flashbulb-so you could take pictures at night. However, once he got to the store, his friend convinced him to buy a bow and arrow set for himself instead and to get Wally a cheap gift. Well, to make a long story short, Beaver eventually felt guilty for buying himself a gift and not his brother. However, Wally didn't let it phase him; he explained to Beaver that he had done a similar thing when he was younger and their mom had told him to buy flour and he bought chocolate syrup instead. Wally still loved Beaver just as much and didn't care that he hadn't gotten him a cool gift-you better believe Beaver was thankful that his brother was so cool about it all. Why did I tell you that whole story? I'm not sure, at first I thought it was relevant and then the more I talked about, the more I realized that it wasn't. But, I did like the fact that Wally was so understanding with his little brother and I guess I wanted to share that with you guys.....oh well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway.
Ok, so here is my challenge for this post: demonstrate your gratitude. Take time each day from now until the new year (hopefully, even beyond that) and tell God or tell a friend something you are thankful for that day. It need not always be something monumental, but just be open and honest with what you are grateful for. I hope you and your families have a wonderful thanksgiving!
Later, gator
David
That's very touching.
ReplyDelete