Gratitude in any season

Holly Dorman
Posted 11/23/21

With Thanksgiving being this week, many of us have increased our focus on the things we are grateful for.

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Gratitude in any season

Posted

With Thanksgiving being this week, many of us have increased our focus on the things we are grateful for. Our families and friends, good entertainment and good weather, food on the table and good health for ourselves and our loved ones.

In the crazy two years since this pandemic first hit, we haven’t always had the chance to be together. This year, the table might even be a little emptier after losing loved ones to this virus and the senseless acts of violence that have rocked our nation and our world. Nothing can ever replace the ones we’ve lost or the memories we’ve lost out on, but as we learn to focus on the things we do have, the grief and sadness become a little easier to carry.

Research has shown that gratitude is strongly linked to greater joy. It may not shrink the sadness we feel, but it grows our ability to carry it. Maybe that’s what the poet Walt Whitman was feeling when he wrote, “I am larger, better than I thought. I did not know I held so much goodness.”

This time of year brings with it elementary school plays and other reminders about the pilgrims who first came to North America and the help the Native Americans gave them. That first feast started a centuries-old tradition for gratitude as we approach Thanksgiving, but why should we limit our gratitude to November only?

When the snow falls in February, let’s be grateful for the beautiful scenery and the precipitation falling over our dry land. When April showers roll in, let’s breathe it in and be grateful for the May flowers sure to bloom. When the sun beats down in mid-July, let’s be grateful for clear skies.

When we’re together with our loved ones, let’s be a little extra grateful for the chance to laugh together. When we’re apart from our loved ones, let’s be grateful for the roofs over our heads and the technology we can use to maintain our good relationships.

Maybe then, we can say along with Whitman, “All seems beautiful to me, I can repeat over to men and women, You have done such good to me, I would do the same to you.”