"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. " ~G.K. Chesterton
It is the week of the Thanksgiving holiday. In some ways it is an odd holiday. It centers so much around foods, traditional ones, favorite ones, ones not eaten at any other time of the year. Only in elementary school is there much talk about its origins. And even that now has the shadow of guilt as we non-natives realize the ways in which the relationship supposedly modeled at that first Thanksgiving eventually played out. So to think of this holiday as primarily historic is complicated.
But the fact of gratitude still remains. The fall theme of our faith community has been 'Gathering Gratitude.' An artist even created an image of two large arms holding an enormous bowl full of things for which we are grateful…bread, water, books(wisdom), fish, a globe(earth), a flower pot(beauty), and a peace symbol, that longed for and often unrealized state of being. It is a beautiful piece that begs the question:What would each of us add to that bowl? What are the symbols each of us gather in with our arms and place at the center of our Thanksgiving table? Family? Friends? Health? Freedom? Faith?
Nearly every day when I arrive home from work I am greeted by the young children who live next door. They throw open the door, full of their simply perfect lives,welcome me home and tell me a little about their day. I am grateful for that. Every Sunday morning I am blessed to worship in a circle of people whose love reaches out in faith to try to heal the hurts and sorrows of the world through their prayer. I am grateful for that. More than once a week I am privileged to talk for long periods of time to my mother who is still vital and amazingly funny at eight decades. I am grateful for that. As we gather around our Thanksgiving table we will do so surrounded by loving friends who have held each other through thick and thin and the presence of our two wonderful college aged sons. I am grateful for that.
How will you gather the gratitude in your life this week? How will you move your arms in a large sweeping motion to encompass the span of it all? How will you then place it all at the center of your Thanksgiving day? These are the questions those who began this holiday must have asked themselves. And they are still relevant today.
Perhaps the even bigger question is: Can our arms reach far enough to hold it all?