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| Thankful for the beauty of fall |
(Excuse the small pun!)
It's still Thanksgiving weekend and even with the possible food coma, Black Friday shopping and overload of family and friends, we may still have a bit of the actual 'giving thanks' feeling lingering in us. A glow of gratitude. A counting of blessings resulting in warm fuzzies. After all gratitude seems to be the easiest, cheapest and safest drug to help fight stress, depression, anxiety, the general blahs. So we can take a couple of minutes and extend the good vibes by giving thanks (skipping the attendant gluttony) for a few 'extensions' to the standard lists.
- Family. For sure we're thankful for our immediate family and sometimes our extended family (especially when they're at the table). How about the many generations that went before us to make us who we are? We may have names and occasionally faces for a generation or two (or, if lucky, three) before us, but just thinking of our ancestors and the place(s) they came from and imagining their lives gives us a much better appreciation for our own lives and times (where we can obsess about the selection of heritage vs. 'all natural' turkeys).
- Health. We tend to give thanks for our own and our family's good health if one of us recovered from something nasty, but we forget we stay healthy with exercise and diet. Give thanks to the fact that you can bike to work, or live close to a wilderness area with great trails, or your daily life is so full of activity that you don't need to 'work out'. And many of us should thank our good fortunes for the plentiful access to healthy tasty foods (yay for farmers markets!).
- Work. While being routinely thankful for having jobs and incomes (sadly 'at least I should be thankful I have a job' is all too common), we could extend our gratitude to our coworkers who enrich our work lives, the mentors who help us out, the innovation around us (if we're lucky) and the sheer satisfaction of accomplishment which work of any kind brings to us.
- Challenge. We don't like it when the going gets rough. We get hurt or disappointed by people. We're frustrated when things don't work they way we want them to. We're stressed when projects sputter at work or kids act out at home. But, if you stop to think about it, you'll recognize that you grew and learned something from every one of these 'I wish it didn't happen' events. The 'difficult people' and 'rough patches' that make you stronger and add texture to the tapestry of your life are worth your thanks.
- Fulfillment. The feeling that you've been of help to someone is right up there with gratitude as a happy drug, being 'fulfilled' is the best possible state. So make it a double-shot, give thanks for all the opportunities you've had to be compassionate and of service to others.
- Fun. If you're reading this post, you're one of the fortunate ones with access to the Internet and discretionary time (both of which are in themselves worthy of serious gratitude) and you probably get to do something fun maybe even on a daily basis. It doesn't matter what it is - video games, cartoons, music, foodie fests, football, books, sitcoms, art, scrabble - you should give heartfelt thanks you're so lucky to be able to indulge in something just because it pleases you.
- Beauty. It is all around us, in the earth, the sky and stars, the creatures that share our planet, in the people of the world from babies to babushkas, in the ideas and artifacts we humans conjure. It gives us joy, sometimes even when we're not aware of it and deserves gratitude for its presence.
That's it, a few extras for consideration in giving thanks - I don't feel compelled to make it a list of 10 (another thing to be thankful for). What's on your thanksgiving list?