On this Thanksgiving morning, I woke up to the view shown in the photo here. We are visiting our oldest son, Brian, in Folly Beach, South Carolina. This is the view from our hotel balcony at Tides where Brian is one of the managers. Not too shabby, is it?
This is a day when Americans traditionally give thanks for all the blessings of life – family, friends, work, home, faith – whatever makes the hopefully long list of reasons you have to be thankful. It is easy to get out of a mindset of thankfulness as we daily strive to do more and get more. In fact, later today many millions will end the day of giving thanks for what they have by crashing through throngs of people at stores in a mad dash to get more stuff. I won’t be among them and neither will my wife.
Thankfulness has much to do with contentedness. Yesterday I read about micro apartments being approved for rental in San Francisco that have only 220 square feet (yet rent for the ridiculous price of $1500/month). Could I live in 220 square feet? Yes, I think I could because my contentedness and reasons for thankfulness come from within and are not dependent upon certain external circumstances being true. Will I be testing that theory any time soon? Not likely.
At least for this day, let’s try to genuinely be thankful for all of our blessings. Don’t look with envy on what others have or the lives they lead. Know that your life is a wonderful gift and an opportunity to not only receive much, but to be a part of what causes others to be thankful for their relationship with you.
Enjoy the day. Be content whatever your circumstance.
Leap year lesson #326 is Be thankful.
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