The Undiscovered Country

A Day Late . . .

Then again, every day is a good day to reflect on how much we have to be thankful for. It doesn't have to happen on one national holiday. If nothing else, when life seems to have taken a darker turn, counting blessings a good way to uplift the spirit.

When I sit down and count all my blessings, I'm astonished. In no way do I think I deserve any of it, and it makes me all the more appreciative of what I have.

For the material: I have a great job with great bosses who will let me take three months maternity leave, and still have a job waiting for me when I'm ready to return. (It's a small enough company, they're not required by federal law to do so).

I want for no food, shelter, and in fact have too many things I don't even need, but merely wanted. It's been years since I've had to live from paycheck to paycheck, stressing over whether or not I'll make my next rent or be able to fill my gas tank enough to get to work or school.

For the emotional: I have a husband who adores me, pushes me to pursue my dreams, yet at the same time keeps me grounded.

My friends here and elsewhere, what can I say? You've been second only to my husband in keeping me from giving up my dreams, and not allowing any sadness or concern to last longer than it should.

I've reconnected with my biological father, and am enjoying our developing relationship.

For the physical: I am more healthy than I have any right to be. I can only complain about an occasional eczema outbreak, and bad knees. I haven’t even had a cold in years.

Even my pregnancy is going smooth, especially considering I’m high-risk because of my age. Sometimes I wish I had a problem or two so I have something to complain and talk about. (Okay, not really, but it would make for more interesting reading for you, and conversation with those who ask how everything is going). When I think of what other women have gone through during their pregnancies, I definitely count this as my biggest blessing to date.

How can I express the joy of the new life growing inside me?

For the spiritual: Again, this will be difficult to express, because it goes so deep. I could chalk it up to hormones, but I get teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Call it fate, call it an accident of birth, but I’m grateful to God for being born in the country and in the time I am living in. I don’t have to worry about talking about and living my faith, while there are millions in other countries persecuted and even executed for doing the same.

I try not to take that for granted, though it is so easy!

In looking back, I can see how God relentlessly pursued me from the age of 10, and still does. Why? That’s a question for God himself, because I don’t have a clue. He has a job for me, I know that much. I don’t know what that is in entirety, but I try to at least listen for his instruction. I fail many times, but in his immense patience and mercy, he shows me my errors, and never gives up.

Even when I strayed for 15 years, he waited for me. No human would have done that.

I also thank God for all the other blessings I counted above. He, after all, made it possible.

Our first and sixteenth presidents said it best about Thanksgiving and to whom we should ultimately give thanks for all we have:

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 and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

G. Washington

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Abraham Lincoln