Thankful on Thanksgiving!

Before I sign off until sometime tomorrow-night-or Friday, I wanted to take a minute to thank all of my regular readers (and new visitors) for continuing to bother reading me, even when I annoy; even when you hate yourself for doing it; even when I’m writing about politics, instead of religion; even when I’m writing about religion, when you wanted politics; even when I’m writing about baseball, when all you like is football, plus you hate the Yankees; even when I’m busy being all Catholic-y when you don’t much care for Rome.

I am truly grateful for the civil debate in my comments sections; you guys are the best; even when it gets hot, it never descends into name-calling or true nastiness.

I am thankful for the occasional hitting of the tip jar and for the way you guys use Amazon and buy Monk Coffeethrough here, just to help out. I’m grateful that you buy nun soap and hand creme to help nuns you don’t know.

I’m grateful that you’re those kinds of generous folk, because you humble and teach me. I just had an email asking if I knew any cloistered nuns who could use a little financial help this Thanksgiving? Of course I do. But you see what sort of great readers I have? Most people don’t even think that way!

The attitude of gratitude; it’s the broadest and most direct route to Joy:

To be imbued with Joy is to be a missionary to the multitudinous “everyday people,” people who are perhaps not burdened in an especial way, but who have just lost track of “what there is to be happy about.” If you work the thread backward, a fruitful Joy can help beget the gifts of Wisdom and Understanding upon others.

If one does not have some measure of Understanding, one cannot find and feel gratitude. I have a friend like this. Ask her what she’s grateful for, she can come up with her kids, her health and her car, and that’s about it; she is always in a semi-funk and slightly depressed. She tells me that outside of giving birth, she has never felt joy, and that did not last, as the joy was soon consumed by anxiety. It does not occur to her that the fact that she can lift a cup of coffee to her mouth, unassisted, is something for which to be grateful. If you said it to her, she’d roll her eyes and say, “well, of course,” but knowing that the ability to feed oneself, or shave, or breath without help is a good thing is not the same as really understanding the gift of independence. And if you cannot understand that gift, you can’t feel proper gratitude for it. And if you can’t find things for which to feel grateful, everyday, you will never feel a sustained joy, or even a deep-but-unsustained joy.

But if you can feel gratitude, even if it gets a little wet and teary sometimes, then you are on the track to owning real joy. You are blessed.

I dislike the cooking and work of Thanksgiving, but I love what is behind the day. Today, while I am chopping celery and mashing root veggies, I will be whispering up all of my thanks to God, for all of the myriad blessings He has bestowed on me, including the very humblest ones: I can cook. I can use a knife and fork. I can walk on my own power; I can raise a cup of coffee to my lips, unassisted. I can move my fingers with a fair amount of speed, to articulate my gratitude for my profession, and for your kind visits.

I love my life!

Feel free to ponder the things you’re thankful for and share them in the comments section. See you Friday. Or Thursday night, perhaps!