Thanksgiving: being gratitude

Thanksgiving: being gratitude…

“Go over yesterday's balance and you will see you are still indebted to others and life”

 Khalil Gibran

Since I was not born in the U.S., nor have lived there, I did not grow up celebrating Thanksgiving. The reason I do now is that there are several Americans in the church I have attended for the last eight years or so, and they’ve been kind enough to share this lovely festivity with those of us who come from other countries.

So even if most of us at  church didn't celebrate this  day growing up, it hasn’t been hard to catch up to the joy, the excitement and the meaning of this holiday. The meal we share is quite traditional -turkey, sweet potato biscuits and pumkin pie. A nopales salad (cactus leaves) or a Salvadorean style chicken might find their way to the menu from time to time, but I feel this just adds to the richness of the occasion.

If we think about it for a minute, we will certainly come up with things we can be thankful for, even if our lives might be less than perfect.

Off the top of my head, I am thankful for my son, my relatively good health, friends and family, my home and my job. I guess these kinds of things  come to mind easily for a lot of people.

Digging a little deeper, I also feel thankful for all the good and beautiful things I have enjoyed in the years I’ve been on this planet.

Giving thanks seems to fill our hearts with joy; it’s as if the glow of all the good things we have in life starts shining more intensely when we consciously make a list of them.

Sometimes though, giving thanks can hurt. At least that´ s what happens to me when I wonder why I have been blessed in so many ways, whereas millions endure a state of terrible want and oppression.

Today, I would like to give thanks for two things in particular, things that go beyond the specific circumstances of my life, be they past, current or even future.

There´s this song I really like by Brazilian songwriter Renato Teixeira. This is  the part of the lyrics I like the most:

Each one of us writes their own story

Every being carries within the gift of being able

To be happy

I find it amazing that, no matter how unique and different our lives may be from everyone else’s, we all carry the possibility of finding happiness and fullness of experience, at any given moment or place, no matter what the ratio good/bad has been like for us so far.

Both life, with its synchronicities, coincidences and its really magic way of changing and rearranging itself in ways and at times we least expect it to, and our deep inner wisdom constantly offer us the possibilty of working through and healing old wounds, of growing stronger and of blossoming into endless ways and directions.

The only thing that is asked of us in this process, which isn’t always easy, is that we stay alert to the paths that both life and our essential being present us with and that we be willing to explore them.

Today then, I am thankful for the seeds of happiness that have developed and bloomed in my life, often where I was least expecting them to appear, as well as for the those I have yet to see grow.

The second thing for which I’d like to give thanks today is similar to the first one I mentioned, as it is a seed we are born with, or rather, it is a seed of what we are in essence, in other words, infinite peace, joy and gratitude.

When we make a habit of visiting deeper waters of our being, it slowly dawns on us that the first and foremost reason we can be be thankful for is the fact of “being”. Consciousness, light, soul are just a few words that are often used to name the mystery of our essence. When we realize, even if only for a second, what underlies the person we think we are, our history, as well as everything that determines our self-concept, we are overcome with a deep sense of wonder and gratitude.

I believe this is the gratitude that Meister Eckart was referring to when he wrote:

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is “Thank you”, it will be enough”.

I say “Thank you”, not because I am a certain type of person, or because I  live in this or that  country. Not because I've enjoyed good luck, success, opportunities or blessings either... At least not only for that...

Rather, today I  give thanks for the fact of BEING.

We can say “Thank you” because when we realize, even if incompletely or imperfectly, what we truly are, gratitude (and the joy that comes with it) becomes an inextricable part of our experience, no matter what life brings us. We then are thankful not only for specific circumstances in our lives, but mostly because gratitude is our essence.

What are you thankful for today?

Have you ever felt life guiding you towards what is best for you?

Have you ever embarked on a path opening up before you?

Have you ever experienced yourself as a flame of pure consciousness, with no gender, no age, no characteristics whatsoever?

I thank you for reading these lines.

Find me on Instagram: manzana_iridiscente12

Or write to me at: theiridescentapple@yahoo.com

Pic credits:

Thank you: Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Pumkin: Simon Maage on Unsplash