Blessings

Just three days away, Thanksgiving is almost here. While many look forward to gatherings with family and friends around a table sharing a festive meal and enjoying traditions like watching the Macy’s Day Parade, cooking food together, and rooting for a favorite football team, I like Thanksgiving for another reason. It gives me time to pause, to rest, and to reflect on all the good in my life and in the world. Constant news of wide spread unrest, ongoing wars, and the lead up to and aftermath of our presidential election has left me trying to process a tangle of emotions. It has made it harder for me to keep the faith.

From my journal: November 6, 2024, Newbury Park, California

“Crazy times…feel like I’m in mourning…I need to feel how I feel and stay true to myself and my beliefs, but I need to move forward…”

It’s easy to be positive in times of peace, not so much in times of upheaval. But for now, for just awhile, I want to put aside my worries, concerns, and disappointments. I want to focus on my loved ones, community, and the daily basic comforts I am fortunate enough to have. I also want to share some quotes with anyone who like me, may need a little insight, hope, and inspiration.

• “We may not have it all together, but together, we have it all.” – Unknown

• “Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.” – Henry Van Dyke

• “Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.” – Native American saying“

• “Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “Always have an attitude of gratitude.” – Sterling K. Brown

• “Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.” – Unknown

• “Thanksgiving is the holiday that encompasses all others. All of them, from Martin Luther King Day to Arbor Day to Christmas to Valentine’s Day, are in one way or another about being thankful.” – Jonathan Safran Foer

• “We would worry less if we praised more.” – H.A. Ironside

• “Thanksgiving reminds us that no matter what befalls us in life, we can take the charred remnants, and we can reconstruct a life unimaginably richer than that from which the shards and pieces fell.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough

• “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our Thanksgiving.” – W.T. Purkiser

• “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” – John F. Kennedy

• “Thanksgiving… reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are.” – Joyce Giraud

• “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward

• “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

• “Peace is always beautiful.” – Walt Whitman

• “The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us.” – James E. Faust

• “Simple blessings are all around us. Once we receive them with thanksgiving and appreciation, we experience true joy.” – Krystal Kuehn

• “Being grateful does not mean that everything is necessarily good. It just means that you can accept it as a gift.” – Roy T. Bennett

• “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

• “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix

• “Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace is accord. Harmony.” – Laini Taylor

• “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” – Mahatma Gandhi

• “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” – Albert Einstein

• “When you do the right thing, you get the feeling of peace and serenity associated with it. Do it again and again.” – Roy T. Bennett

• “It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters,” – Amit Ray

• “A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.” – Daisaku Ikeda

• “If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nations. When there is order in the nations, there will peace in the world.” – Confucius

• “Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have.” – Catherine Pulsifer

May you find yourself with those you love on this holiday celebrating your blessings and all there is to be thankful for. Onward and upward, we go.