  Spiritual
This week: A Time for Thanksgiving Edited by: Shannon  
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Welcome to the Spiritual Newsletter. I am Shannon and I'm your guest editor this week. |
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Thanksgiving was a big deal when I was a kid. The six of us (my parents, my three brothers, and I) would gather around our huge dining room table piled high with various kinds of mouth-watering foods, and we'd sit down to pray. No one touched anything until a prayer was offered for our bounty. Sometimes my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins would join us, and I'd fall asleep listening to the comforting sound of the adults talking till the wee hours of the morning about how good the Lord has been to our family and how blessed we are to live in the United States of America.
All my grandparents are gone now, and I haven't seen any of my aunts, uncles, or cousins in decades. We're spread across the country, busy living our lives and caring for our families, but my attitude of gratitude remains.
The older I get (I'm forty-four years old now) the more thankful I am for the blessings bestowed upon me. There have been times when money was tight and times were very tough, but I've never gone to bed hungry. I once lived in an ancient single-wide trailer that was nearly impossible to heat in the winter and as hot as an Easy-Bake Oven in the summer, but I've never not had a roof over my head. I've driven smoking piles of metal shaped like cars that you could hear coming from a mile away, but I've always had a vehicle to get me from point A to point B. There have been times I hated my job and wanted to cry just thinking about going to work (and did on several occasions), but I've always had employment and a means to take care of myself and my children.
Rather than focusing on what's not the way I want it to be, I've made it a habit to concentrate on this beautiful gift called life, and I repeat what it is I'm thankful for throughout the day. It puts me in a positive frame of mind and reminds me of just how blessed I really am.
I shared this philosophy with a 70-year-old family member and she said, "But don't you just repeat the same things over and over every day?" I was saddened by this question because I saw the blindness behind the asking. "No," I said. "It's not the same things over and over every day. Of course there's family and friends and food and shelter, but what about the little things that make life worth living?" I asked. "I'm thankful for a cool breeze on a hot summer's day and walking hand-in-hand with my husband in the gloaming. I'm thankful for the opportunity to watch my grandchildren open presents on Christmas morning. I'm thankful for how awestruck I felt when I watched the acrobats of the Shanghai Circus ... and the time I cried from the third row of a Yanni concert because the music was too beautiful to hold inside. I'm thankful for books that keep me up until 4:00 a.m. I'm thankful for snowflakes on my tongue and the sun on my face on a frigid winter's day. I'm thankful for the way new socks feel on my feet. I'm thankful for neighbors who wave when I pass by. I'm thankful for coffee in the morning and the smell of cookies baking. Do you see?"
It was like a light came on; she did see. "Yes," she said. "I do."
For me, Thanksgiving isn't reserved for the fourth Thursday in November. Thanksgiving is every day, and today I am thankful for WDC and all the beautiful friends I've made here. I'm thankful for all the support, the kindness, and the encouragement you've given me since I became a member on April 11, 2006. I'm thankful for the beautiful words you've written and shared with everyone on the WDC website, and I am honored to be part of such a wonderful community where readers and writers from all walks of life, backgrounds, and religions can come together and support each other.
I am thankful for you.
Peace and blessings.
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The following is in response to "Spiritual Newsletter (October 31, 2012)" :
monty31802 says, "I learned something, Thanks for a great newsletter Shannon." Thank you, Monty! I'm glad you liked it. 
D.B.  says, "When I lived in Utah and went trick or treating as a small child a lady invited me and my brothers and sisters in for cocoa (my dad was with us.) It was snowing that night. Maybe it's something they did 'back then' (this was the seventies.) Halloween has never been evil to me, just fun!" It was for me too, D.B. I think things were a lot different back in the 70s when you and I were growing up. People seemed kinder and more trusting of one another. Thank you so much for reading and sharing your thoughts and experience with the readers. 
embe  says, "Thank you for a caring newsletter. Herewith my poem for helping Orphans. [see below]" Aw, thank you, Embe! And thank you for your poem. I've included it below. 
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Spiritual: November 20, 2012 Issue [#5370]
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