Day 105 - Everything Counts

Today is Thanksgiving Day. It is an opportunity to express heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for the many blessings in my life. My wish to all is a life filled with abundance and prosperity. My abundance comes in many ways - through a loving family, warm and caring friends, work that inspires and challenges me, a home that gives me respite and comfort, interests that keep my mind and spirit occupied and uplifted and a focus on being thankful for what I have, rather than focusing on wanting more.

 

This is a day to gather around the table and leave the chatter of our everyday lives behind. It's time to talk with each other and have big, noisy, loud and chaotic family discussions as well as small intimate conversations. It's a time to sit quietly side by side and to reach out to those we care most about. It's a time to soften our outlook and maybe open ourselves just a little bit to listening and hearing another point of view, because we are blessed to live in a free land that allows us our perspective. Even when we feel lack, we can still believe there is much more available to us if we can be open to the gifts that life has in store for us.

 

As I gather with loved ones today I will pause and remember those who are less fortunate and make a commitment to do something about it. Every effort in that direction is part of a momentum that can make real change happen and I can be part of another's abundance though my giving. I can think about how I have grown this year and what I have accomplished and be thankful. My experiences are non-material gifts and not every one feels like a gift in the moment. But upon reflection, a focus on finding meaning helps me to see how everything is connected and how it all counts. I can recall moments of joy when something simple took my breath away or made me see the world anew. The food on the table represents the bounty of my life and it makes me know how much I have been blessed.