What are your thankful for?
As we gather around the table this Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, I’ve been thinking about what I will say when my turn comes to talk about what I grateful for.
The list is so long! I’ve been incredibly fortunate—blessed with a loving and amazingly supportive partner, good health, a thriving career, and a circle of wonderful friends. Life is truly good!
But there have also been some really tough moments—with challenges that left me feeling shattered and nearly broken.
That’s right feeling shattered and nearly broken.
That got me to thinking, what if it wasn’t just blessings that we were grateful for, but the less-than-good things that happen to us, the things we struggle with?
grateful for the struggle
Maybe this year brought you a tough, uncompromising boss or a nasty breakup, or a brush with a scary disease that required months of recovery time. I’ve been there and going back is painful.
So to say a prayer of thanksgiving for them feels counterintuitive because we would much prefer to put all that behind us as quickly as possible.
I think it’s easy to be happy and content – to be grateful – when things go well. It’s when they don’t go well that we’re tested. Struggles mold and shape us. That’s when we meet our true selves. It’s in those times when we discover our strength.
So I challenge you this year to not only ask yourself what or who you’re grateful for, but also to reflect on a different question: What struggle are you grateful for? How has it shaped and enriched your life?
hope for what’s next
Every time I hit a new trail, there are lessons waiting for me. No matter how much I plan and the years of expertise I take with me, I make mistakes. If I spent too much time wallowing in those mistakes, I’d never get anywhere!
You have the opportunity to look at difficulties as obstacles, or you can look at them as opportunities.
Instead, the trail, like life, keeps me humble and open to learning. I’m handed the opportunity to look at my problems as obstacles or as opportunities – and for that, I am grateful.
Anne Lamot wrote, “I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”
Be grateful for how all things in your life have shaped you, the good, the bad and the ugly. They brought you to this moment and give you hope for what’s to come.
Thank you for joining me as my reader. May you have a blessed and joyous Thanksgiving!
6 Responses
Grace is powerful…we’ve learnt that over the years. Good to hear you experiencing it in all that you’ve gone through. Xx
true that! sometimes you have to look hard, squint even!
I’ve learned in my eighty years that when “one door closes [possibly due to failure or mistake on my part] another opens,” but not necessarily right away. I agree that we can [and should] learn from “the bad and the ugly.” But the chance to apply that learning may be some time later – maybe even years later. So, as Tom Petty once said, “The waiting is the hardest part.” I think that it is in those interstices between a “learning experience” and a new “open door” opportunity that we truly have the chance to grow, change, adapt so we are ready to walk through the “door” when it opens. Thank you for your thoughtful essay today, Thanksgiving, and helping readers like me take a closer look at this one-way raft-ride we call Life.
ooo, this is beautiful! I am totally stealing. Some people say things like, “we make our own luck.” I believe it. There are times we just have to mend the nets before heading back out to sea. I am glad I have been tested, cos I am WAY tougher now, no trail is gonna get the best of me. haha
Thank you for this thoughtful message. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
thank you! enjoy the day