Sunday Sunshine: Seeking Joy? Start by Being Grateful.

It’s November. Thanksgiving will soon be upon us.

When you think about Thanksgiving—both the holiday and the state of being—what can you name right now that you’re thankful for?

When you’re grateful and you see abundance in your life, have you found that your perspective changes and it’s easier to see more and more abundance, that your abundance grows? Do you also notice that your level of joy increases, too?

When your heart is filled with thanksgiving, it will also be filled with joy. Being grateful and being joyful are closely linked. One feeds the other: Gratitude feeds joy and joy feeds gratitude.

Today, this week: Be grateful and watch your joy grow.

Sunday Sunshine: Live a Life of Thanksgiving

It's the week of Thanksgiving, that lovely holiday when we reflect on all that is good, all that is blessing. Often on that day we gather with others to share our bounty. Often, we break bread together, sharing a meal of larger-than-normal proportions. 

Perhaps your Thanksgiving table will be laden with turkey, dressing, cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy, that ubiquitous green bean casserole, and maybe even a pie or two. Perhaps those around your table will hold hands, share laughs, share love. 

Or perhaps your Thanksgiving will be quiet, maybe just you or maybe in an intimate experience with one other person or a small group. Perhaps your meal won't be of feast-like proportions.

In whatever ways you spend the holiday this week, whether quiet or loud, solo or surrounded by family and friends, we all share the same opportunity to enjoy it with a spirit of thanksgiving -- giving thanks for what you have in your life.

As you express your gratitude for your blessings, spread that gratitude, joy and love beyond Thanksgiving to the other days in your life. Being thankful shouldn't be reserved for only one day a year in November. Make the most of every single day by treating it as a gift to be savored and appreciated. 

We each have abundance in our lives. When we spend time reflecting on that abundance, it becomes clearer to us and our opportunities for thanksgiving grow.

Today, this week, this Thanksgiving: Be thankful for the abundance in your life. Spread bountifully your gratitude, joy and love. 

The Quiet Grace of Gratitude

"What would you do if you woke up tomorrow morning and all you had is what you thanked God for yesterday?" That message, which landed on my Facebook timeline several months ago, made me pause as it reminded me of the quiet grace of gratitude.

Gratitude isn't showy, bossy or bold. Gratitude is a quiet state of knowing, a peaceful place of blessing. 

Gratitude seems to be the perfect theme for November, a month marked by not only the American holiday of Thanksgiving, but also the quieting of nature. After the vibrant colors of summer followed by the crayon box of brilliant hues in October, November arrives appropriately in shades of tan and taupe. With it comes the opportunity to pause, to soak up the silence and to be grateful -- even to be grateful for making time to be grateful.

As human beings, our wants are often greater than our needs. When we pause and reflect on our blessings, both large and small, grand and everyday, immediate and evergreen, everything changes. When we're grateful, we often find that what we have is enough. There is a quiet peace in having that deep knowing that it is all enough, there is no need for more, what we have is already blessing.

As I joined three others from my church at an out-of-state conference last year, our pastor led us in prayer before we embarked on our road trip and before each meal. It didn't matter if we were at a fast-food restaurant or taking our sandwich with us in the car, she made sure that we spent a moment in reflection and prayer that always included the words "thank you."

One of those pre-meal reflections was based on a tradition in her household where those dining together share something aloud for which they are grateful that day. I found, as I always do, that when I am forced to think about my blessings, they seem to bubble up in such abundance that naming one blessing isn't sufficient.

As a child, our family's meal prayer consisted of these lovely words: "Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank you for the food we eat. Thank you for the birds that sing. Thank you, God, for everything."

I haven't said that prayer for a long time, but its words are affixed to my childhood memories and I realize that I should say them more often. As I look at those 26 words now, I see that they say it all. The prayer focuses on the good that surrounds us and is inside of us, the magnificence found in the details of the natural world, the blessing of having food to nourish our bodies, and the realization that everything, everything is blessing.

Everything is blessing. Everything.

As an adult, I often experience overwhelming feelings of gratitude. Those feelings are likely fueled by the daily conditioning I do of naming three things for which I'm grateful upon awakening and then repeating the practice before I fall asleep at night. The act of framing my day in gratitude affects my perspective all day long.

How do you experience the quiet grace of gratitude? Take a cue from the gentle shades of November and sit quietly, if only for a few moments each day, to express your thanks. Everything is blessing. Everything. May you feel blessed today and every day.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Celebrate! Give Thanks!

It's the week after Thanksgiving, but that doesn't mean that thanksgiving is over. 

In the 1970s, a song called Celebrate was made popular by the musical group Three Dog Night. The lyrics to that song called us to “Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music.”

Look up! Smile! Celebrate! Dance the joyful dance of gratitude for all that you have in your life. Invite others to join in that dance with you, passing your blessings freely on to them.

Today, this week: Give thanks for the abundance in your life. Feel the light in those blessings. Then, share that light with others.

Now Thank We All Our God

On this first day of November, my thoughts go to thanks and to the lovely hymn, "Now Thank We All Our God." I have been making it a practice for several years to list three things for which I'm grateful upon awakening and again before I go to sleep at night. Such daily and nightly exercises help me keep perspective in the face of the myriad stresses, both major and minor, that can clog up my day. It's easy to get bogged down with the "have-nots" when my life is actually so filled with "haves." By reminding myself of just three things for which to be grateful, I become more centered, positive and hopeful. Recently, I ran into a friend who I don't have the opportunity to see often. One of her first questions to me was to ask about my health. Then, she reminded me ever so wisely that if we have our health and happiness, we pretty much have everything that we need. Just a month earlier, I had suffered a health scare that, fortunately, turned out to be nothing worrisome. However, my friend's words about health and happiness reminded me of the worry I had experienced just a few weeks prior. Health and happiness are linked, but they don't necessarily have to be. I know of numerous people who have taught me the lesson that one's health doesn't have to have power over one's happiness. While one benefits from the other, it is possible to experience happiness even when our health isn't where we would like it to be. Being grateful for each day and saying it with our "hearts and hands and voices" is what Thanksgiving is all about, and Thanksgiving should really be every day.

Breathe in Gratitude

Our minds and hearts go to a sense of gratitude this month, for November is the month of Thanksgiving.  As I get older, I find myself trying to devote more and more time to being in a state of thanksgiving, not reserving it for one day in November. A few years ago, I started a practice of listing three things for which I'm thankful when I awaken each morning and three more things before I close my eyes at night. Hard as it can be at times, I am trying to emulate the quote I read on Facebook a while back attributed to Henry David Thoreau: "I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual...."  I think there is real peace and even a power in making the decision to give thanks every single day and as often as possible throughout the day. My pastor recently gave me information about something called The Examen, a spiritual practice developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola some 400 years ago that features a mindful, daily examination of our deepest feelings and desires. As part of the practice, one is to ask God to draw attention to the moment for which he or she was most grateful and then breathe in the gratitude in order to feel once again the life-giving properties from that moment. According to further online reading I did about The Examen, the concept calls us to reflect on our day with gratitude. So, this month, I will breathe in and breathe out my gratitude and I will fine-tune my focus to the many blessings I'm given each and every day.

Now Thank We

A recent Facebook post included a quote attributed to Henry David Thoreau: "I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual...."  On this Thanksgiving, I am devoting quiet time to reflecting on all that I am blessed to have.  We live in a world of constantly wanting more, but on this day, I am content with who I am and what I have.  Like Thoreau, my thanksgiving is perpetual.  Today, I think of my loving husband Larry, my family and my friends, my work and my recreation, my writing and my reading, my warm home and my full refrigerator.  I have everything I need and more than I could want.  As we gather around the table today, may our prayer be that our thanksgiving be perpetual.

Grace

Today is Thanksgiving, that refreshingly non-commercial holiday when people gather at the table to give thanks.  The November 11, 2012 edition of Parade magazine featured a beautifully written "Views" column by author Anne Lamott about counting our blessings, what she called "holy moments of gratitude."   I particularly liked her description of some familiar words of grace said at many a table before dinner:  "a polite thank-you note to God, the silky magnetic energy of gratitude." In this world of frenzied competition and gimme-more-right-now, today is a fine reminder that there is something lovely and centering about simply saying thank-you for what you have -- be it family, your health, a home, a job, a meal, a friend, a smile from a stranger, whatever.   There is much for which to be thankful, as the familiar hymn says, with hearts and hands and voices.

Touching Heaven

"To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." - Johannes A. Gaertner

I awoke this Thanksgiving to a gray and brown day, which suited me just fine.  The quietness allowed me to awaken slowly and thoughtfully, providing me with the luxury of contemplating my many blessings before rising.  My mind wandered to my good friend, Mary, who visited Mom and me during the last hours of Mom's life.  Rather than deliver the usual platitudes, Mary pressed a small brass leaf engraved with a tiny heart and the inscription "Give Thanks" into my hand and said, "Give thanks that you have had such a wonderful mother and a close and cherished relationship with her."  I thought this morning of how Mom chose to experience life, and even her dying process, with joy and gratitude, grace and acceptance.  She touched Heaven every day with her grateful heart.  Although she was no longer vibrant of body because of her cancer, she was still vibrant of spirit.  While giving thanks for the memory of my mother and thinking about this first major holiday since her passing, I found myself also grateful for what is today.  My wonderful husband suggested that we dine out as a real departure from our normal Thanksgiving routine.  While he ate bread pudding, I ate mince pie, and we both loved every morsel.  We cheered on the Packers to another win and we walked at Devil's Lake where the sun came out and all was beautiful.  I spoke over the phone with family and friends, exchanging Thanksgiving wishes, and I visited a dear friend who wasn't going to get out of the house today.  So, I conclude this Thanksgiving, clasping the little brass leaf, giving thanks for all that was, all that is and all that will be.

The Blessing of Food

We had some of the last sweet potatoes from the farmer's market for dinner tonight. Their vermilion skin and bright orange flesh are sweet and tasty like no others I purchase elsewhere throughout the year.  Our county's university extension gardening agent wrote about sweet potatoes in her local newspaper column published today.  I learned from reading her article that sweet potatoes belong to the Morning Glory family.  They root at the points where the vine touches the soil.  I also learned that I've been storing my sweet potatoes incorrectly all of these years.  The gardening agent wrote that sweet potatoes are a Southern crop and they do not like the cold, even in the refrigerator.  She recommended storing them on top of the refrigerator instead.  Our sweet potatoes are now in a bowl on our kitchen counter, and I must say that I like them better there.  Now, I can enjoy looking at their smooth skin and beautiful color until they become supper.  As I ate my sweet potato tonight, I reflected with gratitude that we have such healthy, locally grown food to enjoy for our meals and that we have food at all.  Television news stories last night and tonight have told of the increasing cost of preparing a Thanksgiving dinner and how much more difficult it is this year for people to afford to prepare one without the assistance of food pantries.  In a country as great as ours, it saddens me deeply that people should have to be uncertain whether there will be enough food to feed their families. I pray that everyone who is hungry tomorrow will have a meal.  Now, that would be a Happy Thanksgiving.

Give Thanks Always

A gentleman in our community provides joy to passersby in a unique, creative way.  He has an extraordinary talent of taking ordinary stick figures that he's made of wood and hinges and turning them into clever tableaus in his front yard located on a busy local thoroughfare.  The stick-figure scenes are changed on a regular basis, usually every week or two.  Sometimes his creations make me laugh.  Other times, they make me think. But, always, they make me smile with appreciation.  His themes run the gamut but quite often, the focus is on seasons and holidays.  His latest yard creation depicts a man and woman seated at a table, heads bowed praying.  A sign accompanying the scene reads "Give Thanks Always."  What a wonderful reminder to us that Thanksgiving is not a day but a state of being.  By giving thanks always, we recognize that there are blessings to be appreciated each and every day.

Nature Stills Me

While traveling with colleagues today, I was captivated by their enthusiastic and good-humored conversations about their busy lives.  Their comments ranged from the hectic pace of their children's before- and after-school activities to deer hunting plans to hosting large numbers of guests around the upcoming Thanksgiving table.  I used to love a sense of busyness in my life but I now appreciate much more a quieter, more measured existence.  As the conversations swirled around me, I found myself staring out of the vehicle window at the stunning sunset over the Wisconsin River, the deer that were placidly eating in a hollow, a hawk flying over a cornfield now stripped bare, and the silhouettes of trees and silos on the prairie.  Busyness and merriment have their place, most certainly, but I am satisfied to be quieter right now, just as nature is quieting down, preparing for winter.  Truly, nature grounds me and stills me, no matter what is happening around me.  Now that is something for which to be grateful.