Keeping Gratitude in Thanksgiving

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon:flickr.com

Now that the holidays are upon us, this is the opportune time to give thanks and feel deep gratitude for everything we have. The yoga studio I go to regularly is holding a two-hour gratitude practice on Thanksgiving morning which I would love to indulge in, but instead I’m going to stay home with my husband and cook our traditional big breakfast together. I’m so thankful for my husband and our marriage, and staying home with him is a choice I’m making. So many people are stuck in bad or even abusive marriages, but I’m so grateful for the husband I have — big, strong, loving, caring, and supportive, and he gives great hugs. We don’t have children, nor do we have family near us, but that’s okay. We spend the holidays alone, and we don’t get invited to anyone’s home for dinner, but we are still grateful because we have a warm home, healthful food, loving pets, a big, warm bed, jobs to pay the bills and then some, two cars in the garage (even if one is a clunker) a phone to hear the voices of faraway loved ones, and a mortgage that we can pay every month.

There are so many people who simply don’t stop to be grateful for what they have. Instead, they focus on what they don’t have, and complain about all the little inconveniences that make life oh, so intolerable. Stop to think for a moment about all the homeless and hungry people out there. They’ve lost their jobs and their homes have been foreclosed on. They stand in line at the shelters with their little children in tow, and cry tears of joy if they can get a bed to sleep in. They eat at soup kitchens and savor the hot food they can get, even if it’s only once a day. They give thanks for whatever comfort they can get.

Let’s give thanks for the roof over our heads, the bed we sleep in, the food in our pantry, the televisions in our living rooms, the money in our checking accounts, the jobs we go to every day even if we don’t like them, and the love of family, friends, and pets. Be thankful for your health and the joy we get from our yoga practice. Envision for a moment what it would be like to be a homeless person, and just be grateful and give thanks that you’re not in their shoes, because if you think some things in life are inconvenient, think of how they have to live.

Namaste, and Happy Thanksgiving.