My family is neither religious nor festive. We cook Thanksgiving dinner because it’s a special meal to have once a year and we never once went around the table to say what we were thankful for.
Today, for the first time in a long time, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my life.
The realities of the world we live in have been closing in on me as of late. At night when I’m trying to drift off to blissfully ignorant sleep, I have flashes of pets and the homeless shivering in the cold, abject poverty and senseless violence, and unimaginable suffering. I think of hunger and the abandoned and the cruel injustices of bad luck. Why these things flash across my mind is a mystery and it’s certainly torture but it’s good to be aware of how lucky you have it when it’s so easy to get lost in the trivial complaints of our comparatively glorious lives.
As of late, complete strangers have been noticeably nicer when I’ve gone into the world to run errands. I think we’re all feeling a bit humbled by the economy. Maybe it’s the holiday spirit. Maybe we have all been slammed by force into not taking so many things for granted like we had been. This extends into a sense that we are all in this together and if retirement plans have fallen into the dust, jobs are lost, and everyone’s just a little bit nervous and afraid, we still have one another.
I am thankful for the goodness that lies within all of us. It will carry us through.
<!--
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Well put. Love this. Miss you! <3 <3