A Thankful Heart

I would simply like to pause this morning and wish my readers a happy Thanksgiving. This is traditionally an American holiday, but the concepts it is based upon are universal. In fact, one of the most important traits we could wish for is a thankful heart. We live in a world of unreasonable expectations and entitlement and so many folks seem to feel that the world, that life, and that even other people owe them something. We tend to focus on what we don’t have or what we’re missing in life instead of what we have already been blessed with. There’s nothing wrong with hopes and dreams and plans, or being motivated. However, the secret to happiness isn’t having what you want. Rather, it is the priceless gift of wanting what you have and that is the result of a thankful heart. Today is the perfect day to take a step back from your unrequited expectations and simply thank God for what you already have in your life. Your spouse and your children, your friends and even your odd relatives, all need hear that you are thankful for them, that they are enough. Today is the day to enjoy and appreciate what and who we have. The fact is that if you’re not happy with your relationships, possessions, health, prosperity or family at this time, it’s unlikely that a change in circumstances will satisfy you. Want what you have, be thankful, and you may surprised how your perspective on life will come around.

In closing, and back on the subject of Thanksgiving, I offer heartfelt holiday wish to you and yours. Remember to be thankful … and to express it to those you love. As a literary offering today, I give a poem by my personal favorite poet, Edgar A. Guest.

The Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving
(Edgar Albert Guest, 1881-1959)
It may be I am getting old and like too much to dwell
Upon the days of bygone years, the days I loved so well;
But thinking of them now I wish somehow that I could know
A simple old Thanksgiving Day, like those of long ago,
When all the family gathered round a table richly spread,
With little Jamie at the foot and grandpa at the head,
The youngest of us all to greet the oldest with a smile,
With mother running in and out and laughing all the while.
It may be I'm old-fashioned, but it seems to me to-day
We're too much bent on having fun to take the time to pray;
Each little family grows up with fashions of its own;
It lives within a world itself and wants to be alone.
It has its special pleasures, its circle, too, of friends;
There are no get-together days; each one his journey wends,
Pursuing what he likes the best in his particular way,
Letting the others do the same upon Thanksgiving Day.
I like the olden way the best, when relatives were glad
To meet the way they used to do when I was but a lad;
The old home was a rendezvous for all our kith and kin,
And whether living far or near they all came trooping in
With shouts of "Hello, daddy!" as they fairly stormed the place
And made a rush for mother, who would stop to wipe her face
Upon her gingham apron before she kissed them all,
Hugging them proudly to her breast, the grownups and the small.
Then laughter rang throughout the home, and, Oh, the jokes they told;
From Boston, Frank brought new ones, but father sprang the old;
All afternoon we chatted, telling what we hoped to do,
The struggles we were making and the hardships we'd gone through;
We gathered round the fireside. How fast the hours would fly--
It seemed before we'd settled down 'twas time to say good-bye.
Those were the glad Thanksgivings, the old-time families knew
When relatives could still be friends and every heart was true.