Thanksgiving Giving thanks Gratitude Appreciation Meaning of Thanksgiving Purpose
There are more reasons to be thankful on Thanksgiving Day than there are people to give thanks. Being thankful makes you happy. Being happy makes you congenial. Being congenial makes you get along well with other people. Getting along well with others brings peace – which is a very pleasant state of well-being. Furthermore peace leads to cooperation and success.
The Wampanoak group of Native Americans are those who celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. It consists of five tribes. One of these tribes, the Pokanoket people of Rhode Island have a statement of faith on their web site that explains this well:
We believe in the cycle of life, which is as follows:
That coming together is the beginning,
That keeping together is progress,
And working together is success
That can only be bonded together
By the Spirit of our Creator
. (http://pokanoket.us/Community-Family-Spirituality.html?rnd=0.6018541843039706#SNAGGING)
Perhaps this mindset is what made the Pokanoket people welcome the Pilgrims and cooperate with them!
Existence
The most basic thing to be thankful for is your existence. No one asks to be conceived or created; therefore you can even be grateful that you are who you are. It’s your genetic make-up that determines your identity. Like most people, you may dislike some things about yourself; nevertheless, you are a gift to yourself and a gift to others. You are a unique gift – even if you are an identical twin. If you were not unique you would be redundant. Be thankful that you are a unique contribution to the world. You are needed!
Life
There is life. It is the second most basic reason to be thankful. To be alive, a person must breathe about 12 breaths per minute. That equals about 6.3 million breaths per year of life. Multiply that number times your age.
Anyone who has ever taken a human physiology class knows how complex the process of breathing is. Anyone who has ever stayed under water long enough to feel desperate for air, knows what a huge blessing it is to be able to get your breath. If you have done neither of these things, hold your breath for as long as you can to make yourself appreciate the gift of air.
To stay alive, a person also needs a heartbeat. A healthy heart rate averages about 70 beats per minute. That’s about 3.5 million beats per year of life. Multiply that times your age and know how hard your heart works to keep you alive. It does so with only a momentary rest between beats! How amazing is that?
The most intricate part of the human body is the brain. To stay alive, a person also needs to have brain waves. The brain is incredibly complex. It controls nearly every part of the body. Be aware of the number of thoughts you have per minute and know that your brain makes thoughts and virtually every other bodily function possible. Furthermore thoughts give emotions their "colors, flavors and scents". How blah life would be without emotions.
Pain
Most people probably would wish to die if they had severe, intractable pain. When pain is unbearable, you can be thankful that, as long as you have life there is hope that the pain will end. Furthermore pain is feedback from our bodies that something needs attention. If there were no pain, life would be much shorter. Thankfulness itself may actually reduce pain, because thankfulness promotes relaxation.
Death
If you believe, as I do, that the spirits of all people continue in existence after death, you can be thankful to have an eternal future and a choice about how to spend it. If you don’t believe that, you have memories to appreciate.
Reality
The truth is that most of us have so much more for which to give thanks. Haven't all of us given and received love at least once? How about music, light, skin, water, warmth and coolness? How about those who give to us in these and many other ways?
I've spent several holidays at home alone with a TV dinner, a few pieces of paper and a pen. It took hours to write the list of all that is good in life. Doing it brought me an overflowing joy. As much as I enjoy people, these were some of the happiest Thanksgivings of all. You might not have the privacy and time to do that on Thanksgiving Day, but try it for at least an hour some day soon. Do this experiment to develop an attitude of gratitude, and see how great it feels.
