Good Morning Kossacks and Welcome to Morning Open Thread
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Doing one of these diaries is a good way to get your feet wet if you have been hesitant about writing a diary. You can write as much or as little as you want. The audience here is always supportive.
It is difficult to write a meaningful diary for any holiday, and particularly one for a day in which we are supposed to give thanks. There are many approaches to it, including the historical perspective, the family traditions, or implications of this day during a time of great need for many people in this country.
The origins of thanksgiving type celebrations can be found in many cultures and were mostly tied to the celebration of the harvest each year. In the United States, Thanksgiving also carries with it a dark side, the oppression of indigenous native Americans. Regardless of tainted history, for many people Thanksgiving is a time for families and friends to gather together.
In the United States, Thanksgiving is often a day for football too. When I was in high school way back in the dark ages, my school usually played a game on Thanksgiving Day. For my high school which never had a very good football team, the result of that Thanksgiving Day game was usually not something to be very thankful for.
But there is more. Please follow me over your early morning Thanksgiving orange danish du kos for my random personal thoughts on the concept of gratitude.
One of the traditions on Thanksgiving in my husband's family is for each of us sitting at the table to tell what we are thankful for. This exercise has always made me uncomfortable. For some reason, it seemed like this was a pop quiz in which each answer would be judged against everyone else's answer. Regardless of what I said, I never felt my answer was adequate enough to pass that judgement.
Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. ~Aldous Huxley
As I grow older, I have been doing more philosophical thinking about life. Some people are more introspective naturally, and others like myself, grow into greater introspection as we age. In 2010, my husband and I lost four friends suddenly within four months of one another. All were younger than us, except one. One died from a sudden and very virulent form of cancer, one died during a surgical accident for a very common and routine surgery, and two died from sudden heart attacks. All were in excellent health before their deaths. Those deaths clearly brought to fore the fragility of life and the concept of my own mortality, which has made me much more introspective about life. We are all mortal. Our children are our physical legacy, but how we live our lives is our moral legacy.
At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
~Albert Schweitzer
In my introspection, one of the things that I have been asking myself about is "what is gratitude?" I think back to those Thanksgivings when we went around the table saying what we were thankful for. It is usually be easy to be thankful for loved ones and health and the normal blessings that most of us have. But I have been searching for a deeper meaning that goes beyond our physical comforts in life and the people within it. To me, the word "gratitude" carries a deeper meaning than just thankful. I believe a large component to gratitude is joy. I think people who experience deep gratitude are those who believe in carrying it forward. True altruism is a reflection of gratitude. I have seen a lot of altruism in the Occupy Movement too, especially from those who have made great personal sacrifices in a fight for a better future for all of us.
Gratitude is the music of the heart, when its chords are swept by the breeze of kindness. ~Author Unknown
Less than two weeks ago, an on-line friend of mine had an organ transplant. He had been sick for some time and was near death when he got the call. He has been informing me and his other friends via a series of emails of his "great adventure" as he calls it. The emails are upbeat and often filled with light humor. What has struck me is the enormous amount of heartfelt gratitude he has for the organ donor who has given him a second chance in life. It is a combination of thankfulness and great joy. I read his most recent email Update # 9 to my husband yesterday. My hubby's comment upon hearing it was "what an uplifting email!"
Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.
~Eileen Caddy
So this Thanksgiving, I am still pondering the depth of what is gratitude. It may be some time before I can truly understand and articulate this beautiful concept. In doing so, I hope to grow more as a human being.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Happy Thanksgiving!