Giving Thanks

Giving Thanks At Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is an exceptional holiday.  It is filled with so many great American traditions.  Among them are fresh roast turkey with all the trimmings, homemade pudding, pies, cakes and cobblers, hot apple cider, dining tables spilling over with guests, children diving into huge leaf piles with cousins the rarely see, The Macy’s Parade, and our favorite pastime……football.

However, no matter how we spend Thanksgiving Day, the one thing we all have in common is that we get to take the occasion to deeply and profoundly acknowledge all the blessings we are grateful for. 

As our National Anthem reminds us, America truly is the “the land of the free” and “the home of the brave” and there are many people to thanks for that.

Of course there are the Pilgrims who left their homeland in pursuit of freedom only to arrive in the New World in the dead of winter after spending months at sea. 

Luckily upon landing, they were greeted by the Wampanoag Indians who lived in the Massachusetts’ Bay area. They shared their knowledge of crops, land and navigation so the English could survive.  Together they established the first Thanksgiving in 1621 with the ritual of feasting and celebrating their good fortune.

Then on October 3^rd, 1789, George Washington penned one of the first Thanksgiving Proclamations to insure we set this day aside as something special and sacred.  He wrote, “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness”.

And today we have the men and women of the armed forces, police officers, firemen, and all the volunteer organizations such as Post 53 who keep us safe and secure so we can continue to enjoy daily life that is filled with liberties much of the world will never see.

Gratitude is a huge part of American life, heritage and ethics. Dr Robert Emmons, professor and scholar on the “science of gratitude”, believes that being thankful is an important dimension of how we deal with one and other. He says gratitude is one of the building blocks of a civil and humane society.

He writes in his latest book Thanks, “First of all gratitude is the acknowledgment of goodness in one’s life.  Second it is recognizing that this goodness comes from outside ourselves. One can be grateful to other people and to God but never to oneself.  Thankfulness is directed outward to the giver of gifts”.    

Gratitude can also benefit you personally and can make a real change in how you view the world.  According to another recent bestseller, Thank You Power, test studies were done using volunteers in 3 groups to test if gratitude can really make a difference in one’s life.  Group 1 focused on the “hassles” of daily life.  Group 2 focused on “ordinary life events” and group 3 focused on “all the things they were grateful for”. 

The results were dramatic.

Group 3 reported fewer ailments, were less depressed, less anxious, and less envious of other people.  They spent more time exercising, had more joy, more energy, and got more sleep.  Moreover they were perceived by other people to be more optimistic, more helpful and more compassionate. 

Ben Stein, writer, actor and economist, recently wrote an article in the American Spectator on gratitude.  He points out the difference between being rich and feeling rich. 

 “A few days ago, I was driving golf balls in my usual pitiful way, all by myself on the driving range, when suddenly a warm breeze came out of nowhere and washed me in common sense.” He writes, “I am here on this beautiful grass, I suddenly thought. The sky is azure blue. The palm fronds are rustling nearby. No one is trying to kill me. I've just had a great lunch. My health is decent. I have my wife waiting for me at home and our dogs.  I am a happy, happy guy. I am grateful, and that is being rich. Gratitude is wealth. Gratitude for what you have right now. Gratitude especially for what you have now that so many people would die for, gratitude for what you have now that won’t last”.