As the delightful day full of turkey and stuffing that is Thanksgiving rounds the corner, it has got me thinking. Thanksgiving, while having rather controversial and offensive origins, is ultimately a day to give thanks. It’s a day to give thanks to your family and friends and to truly reflect on and appreciate all that you have. But why is this act of deep appreciation and thankfulness only encouraged on one day of the year? Shouldn’t we be thankful for what we have every day? Maybe it’s just me, but I love and appreciate my friends and family year round. It shouldn’t take a holiday to provoke thankfulness from everyone.
With all the chaos that has been occurring with the terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut, the massacres in Kenya and the countless other tragedies that have happened around the world recently, one starts to see how fleeting life is. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how fragile our lives are and how in any moment, it can vanish. It’s important to remember that everyday on you have on this earth could also be someone’s last and we need to acknowledge what we have before it’s gone.
While people do give thanks in church, rarely is it as heartfelt and thoughtful as when they do on Thanksgiving. Think about it, do we really stop to appreciate what we have the way we do on thanksgiving? Do we ever dedicate time and effort to thank the people we love and gather with family on any other day of the year? With the hustle and bustle of life and daily stresses, it can be easy to forget how lucky we are. The holiday season reminds us of that. But appreciation for life and loved ones shouldn’t be restricted to just one holiday or season. It should be practiced every day, all year round.
We should be aware of what we have at all times and remember to show appreciation to the people that matter to us most. You never know what could happen on any given day and what could change. It’s easy to lose sight of what is important in life when you’re wrapped up in the hectic craziness of today’s world. But trust me in the grand scheme of things and no matter where life takes you, there’s nothing more important than your friends and family.
Thanksgiving is also about staying humble and realizing that there are people who are in far worse situations than you. You may think your life is hard and complicated, but when you look at some of the tragedy that happens all over the world, you should think again. Just imagine what it’s like to be a starving family in a third-world country just trying to make it through each day with contaminated drinking water, or a refugee fleeing from a war zone in the Middle East. There’s always someone in the world that is struggling more than you are, maybe even struggling for their life.
So when you think your life is in shambles, remember those families who are fighting just to stay alive, and remind yourself of how lucky you are. This is something that we should do well to remember always. Because giving thanks is something that should be done every day, not just on Thanksgiving.
