Gratitude and Thanksgiving Eve

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

As we are counting our blessings, and looking to each other with great gratitude on this most wonderful Wednesday, may your troubles be few, your blessings be many and your joys be off the hook!

Folks are running and doing and getting ready I hear as this is the day before Thanksgiving!

Oh how happy I am to not be in the lines of grocery stores with a list in my hand and so much on my mind that I find trouble carrying all down the isle or pushing a buggy today!

More than turkeys are running and being thawed across the lands, as folks are being interviewed and heard to complain that they have to work today or tomorrow and those that are already saying they just hate that stores are choosing to begin Black Friday on Thursday this year!

Meanwhile there are soldiers who  continue to fight for our freedoms and only wish they had such problems as to work here in the states on a day where folks are indeed fortunate to have a job and will come home to a hot meal and hot water to shower in, while then sitting and watching some good ole' traditional football in the luxury of home and not on the battlefields or in tents on sand.

It's all in the perspective I suppose.

It's all in the thanks in giving and the blessings we choose to embrace.

As I enjoy the morning and my coffee, I have one little 4 legged on my lap and two in beds around me here, and I am thankful for this day, for my life, my family and friends.

For all living things and just everyone who has had a walk through my heart and my mind.

For those who chose to stay, those who walked in and out and all who have taught me lessons along the way.

Some pain filled, some wonder filled some laughter filled and so many now dancing in the galaxies and missed each day.

All have graced me and blessed me with great times and many lesssons.

And of course to keep it real some of those lessons were painful as hell!

Yet I have grown from them all.

As I look at the sky turning blue and the Spanish Moss dancing on the sunlight this day, I am thankful for those who continue to fight for our freedoms, those who stand strong in the face of adversity, those who continue the battle for the greater good of our world.

I pray them safety, I want them home.

I look to each of us to contribute to ourselves in order to contribute to each other in making this a better world; start small and work tall in gratitude and in honesty.

I recognize that all will not or choose not to embrace all the goodness in the world and I also know that all is not good in the world.

Yet I do believe that we all can use our energy to make things better.

I also think deep in my heart that if we do not like something we should not do it, yet we should not take away the rights of others nor the responsibilites of their freedoms of choice.

Hatred is not born it is taught, we are born color blind and we are born with an open heart of love.  If we would only look at ourselves through the eyes of our 4 leggeds and love with the same eyes as when they look at us, perhaps it would be a more loving place of gratitude and blessings given more purely.

Yes it is official

the holiday season is now, here, and wide open.

As I listened to a radio show on NPR, I was taken aback at the many who put a negative spin on their upcoming holiday; the complaints from those who have to work today or tomorrow; Walmart employees who are mad that they have to work a holiday weighed in as well on the line;

 

Callers talked about the inconvenience and  the schedules of change and the meals that will be delayed at their homes, the stress, and the delay of doing Black Friday shopping.

I listened to those who talked about the stress that they would feel about buying presents and the lines of Black Friday and picking out the high tech gifts for kids and loved ones and the money that will be spent in the days ahead.
It was quite the interview I have to tell you!
 

And of all those interviews, I heard only two that were positive, that were blessing filled!

One from a gentleman who said that yes he was blessed and had to work on Thanksgiving, but he was grateful to have a job he loved and that provided for his family. Yes he would have a dinner to come home to and children to love and warmth and all that he still could give thanks for. And for all that he was grateful. When asked about Black Friday he laughed and said he was a Christmas Eve shopper and always had been as he loved the excitement and the challenge!

Seems that is the way of many men, to wait until the last minute; thinking all will still be there for them. I loved his gratefulness, his attitude and that he let them all know he was blessed by his life!

The other was a person who said she didn't understand why people seem to thrive on stress and use holidays as an excuse to be crazy, and yet the stores, the radio and t.v. seem to endorse it, but for her and her family, they loved the time spent, the aromas in their homes and they decorate for Christmas while the T.V. is on and a pot simmers on the stove with cinnamon and peppermints and the football is in the background while giving thanks for what they have!
I couldn't help but think of those who are out of work, although that is improving, I couldn't help but think of those fighting and sleeping on the ground missing home cooked meals and their families, those who have no family, or no food, and no one to buy presents for or a home to decorate as I listened to those who whined and moaned.
Yes it was an interesting NPR show alright.
And oh was I grateful for those two positive and blessing filled callers, they gave me hope in hearing the stories.
 

Let the blessings begin with great gratitude I say as we enter the holidays of 2012.

May you gobble til you wobble

or enjoy that steak!

I am grateful

  HOw bout you?

Thank you to all the men, women, service animals that are serving our Great Nation and prayers to their families as they gather this Thanksgiving.

May the Creator Bless the President of our country and his family as they enjoy their time of Thanksgiving and all people and living things as we also remember those who are now on the other side during our holiday.

Walk in Beauty

DRSES