24 Nov Thanks. Giving.

Many of us are very lucky. We have our health, loving family, great friends, challenging career. But we also all have stuff. Stuff life throws us. Too often we forget to take for granted the good and dwell too much on those things we cannot control in our lives and how we react to the stuff life throws us. Oscar Wilde said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

In the US we celebrate Thanksgiving Day on Thursday. It is essentially a celebration of harvest, though for those of us not exactly focused on farming we tend to lose a bit of the connection there. And while we celebrate the struggle of our Pilgrim forebears, it also reminds us of the battle with native Americans during that time. But there were some moments of peace and cooperation, such as the apparent story of the true “first” Thanksgiving with an Indian named Squanto, apparently the sole Indian survivor of a smallpox outbreak.

As we watch football and gorge ourselves on all manner of feast and drink, let’s do the giving thanks thing. Focus on what’s right and good in your world and the world. Show (or at least cogitate about) appreciation therefor. There will be enough days for the challenging stuff. This long weekend, let’s all look at the stars.