Are you chomping at the bit to dive into that roast turkey, snag some more mashed potatoes or grab more cranberry sauce or another slice of pie?  Maybe you’re wishing you’d quit while you could still waddle away from the Thanksgiving table semi-vertical.? If so, I’m gonna keep this short. (Well, kinda.)

Not to restate the obvious here or anything, but Thanksgiving is a day set aside to, uh… “give thanks.”  Count our blessings.  Lift our eyes off our self-soaked lives and look up to the Father of every good gift.

Fine. But is that what Thanksgiving has turned into – “giving thanks” by rote – because we’re supposed to?

Lord, have mercy.

So I have a proposition for ya. This year, when you’re working off that third slice of pumpkin pie you needed like a hole in the head, how ’bout determining to launch into “thanksgiving mode” year-round instead of just the last part of November?

Ready? Okay. I’ll start. I’m thankful for:

• A fine, fair day at the Mountain.
• Libraries.
• A hot shower and soap after a day on the trail.
• This morning’s sunrise.
• Libraries.
• Tiramisu.
• Fishing (except for the fish part).
• Corn flakes and a bowl to eat them out of.
• Libraries.
• Puccini arias.
• Good health.
• Camping (except for the tent part).
• Swimming (except for the water part).
• Libraries.
• Snuggle Bunny.

Did I mention libraries?

Thankful also for:

Truth. Faithfulness. Friends and family. Mercy. O. Henry, Isak Dinesen, George Eliot. Lilacs. A good night’s sleep. Fresh snow. Fireplaces.  National Park Inn’s blackberry crisp a la mode and all the Ghiardelli’s I can scarf (nobody’s perfect).

If we develop the daily discipline of deliberate thankfulness, I’m willing to bet we’ll discover new horizons of grace and beauty that were there all along.  We didn’t see them because we weren’t looking for them.

Are ya game? Good!  Now. Step away from the table and no one gets hurt. I promise.

Have a great Thanksgiving. On purpose. Every day.

 

Note: This post was first published on my other blog in 2015.