Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving Day
What I Wrote In My Gratitude Journal This Morning (and one thing I thought of later...)
"Image generated with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI developed by OpenAI."
(Note:
I'm just learning how to use ChatGPT,
hence the misspellings and such.
Remember, I'm a digital immigrant!
Always tryin' new stuff!)
If I were to count my blessings it would take forever. For each moment is a blessing, each breath is a gift, each flower is an astonishment, each day a new adventure.
If I were to count my blessings, they would include my cherished family – my dear wife Lana, Shane, Piper, our grandkids, my siblings, and all their kids, and all our relatives – each one of them. Tinkerbell, and all our dogs through the years, would be on that list, beloved. And so would friends near and far and past and present.
If I were to count my blessings, they would include my senses – these I take for granted too often. The ability to smell, see, touch, hear, and to taste. My body, my heart, my mind, my soul. They are all aging, getting long in the tooth, but blessings still.
If I were to count my blessings, they would include mountains, and hiking trails, the smell of sage after a rainy day, the sunrise slowly lighting up the path extending before me. They would include rainy nights and cozy, snowy days.
These blessings would include countless experiences, from sharing a cup of coffee with a friend to eating paella with my son in a Spanish village along a pilgrim trail.
If I were to count my blessings, they would include the sense of transcendence found listening to beautiful music or singing in our contemplative service at church each Tuesday evening, and they would include the vast, deep, presence of the Divine, of oneness, of awe and wonder, and of losing myself in something bigger than myself which might come at any time.
It would include ever deepening spiritual learning, following the way of Jesus as best I can, trying to do it a little better each day, and experiencing the unearned gift of grace.
Counting my blessings would take forever, for blessings are all around me. Some I’ve contributed to, but many of the most important ones are unearned, like the wind that blows to cool me on a hot day or a gorgeous sunset that just amazes me with its beauty. Even difficulties and sorrow, though never requested and often testing, can add to my blessings if I will put them into the perspective of a grateful life. I wish I did that better, but...incrementally...
At the same time, counting my blessings could take no time at all, for my life is a blessing. Why not just say thanks for the whole kit and caboodle?
I am glad to be alive today, love having lived, and will be sad when it is time to go no matter how many days, months, or years from now that may be. I expect to be joyful and at peace for having been given this life for as long as it lasts.
And oh yes, the blessing of laughter. It makes life better in every way.
