Happy Thanksgiving
This day hints at how we might move ahead in a tough time.
In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown points out that hope is not an emotion but a way of thinking. While I fully admit that I - as an Enneagram 5 - naturally lean more into head than heart, I do think this could be a helpful framing for many of us who stand on the cusp of despair these days. Emotions are good. They make us human. They connect us to ourselves, other people, the natural world, and God. They also provide us valuable data. (I know, there's my robot side popping up again.) But they come unbidden, and they aren’t easily changed. Mindsets, though, can be altered.
Why am I bringing this up today? It’s Thanksgiving in the United States, a day when we are encouraged to lift up all we are grateful for. It’s a real spiritual exercise to put effort into this celebration, especially when many things seem grim. But it cultivates a noticing that can shape our thinking. There are always reasons to be grateful, even if they are very granular. I am thankful for my dog’s funny habits. I can’t help but smile when he dances for treats. It’s getting dark earlier since the time change - which I am not a fan of - but this means that I leave home to pick up my son from martial arts at a time when the sky is absolutely magical, dark plum overhead and a lovely Tennessee orange at the horizon. Several times lately I have stopped at the end of the road for several seconds, just taking it in. God is in all of these recognitions, reminding me of the divine presence in my own backyard and in the sky underneath which we all go about our lives. And then I feel better and breathe more deeply.
We’re going to need to practice gratitude in the days, months, and years to come. It will shape our thinking. It will bend us toward hope. And when we have hope, we can recognize and claim our agency. We can make the world around us better in a million tiny - and and even a few big - ways. That is how we get through. That is how our brains are opened up for creative resistance to the powers and principalities. That is how we make change for our own sakes and for others.’
So what are you grateful for on this Thanksgiving Day?