Thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving Day in Canada today. An opportunity to reflect and an opportunity for gratitude. For those of us born in Canada, we have won the lottery. The privilege of our lifestyle is something we were born into, we did not earn it. It is somewhat telling about our culture that many of us need to reflect to recognize opportunities for gratitude.

2016 has been a very tumultuous year. There have been so many health issues in my family that it has been impossible for me to keep all the balls in the air that I have been accustomed to. So much good has come out of all the turmoil of 2016 that is impossible for me to not feel immense gratitude in my life.

I have been writing this blog for around three hours now. What is usually a 15 minute or so endeavour has been hijacked by my cat Sumo. She has been a constant thorn in my side when it comes to productivity. She is always on my lap, grabbing my hands and trying to force me to pet her. It is not an easy task to type and pet a cat at the same time. Yet I endure and I am grateful to have Sumo in my life. I may have rescued her but for the most part it is her who takes care of me. She doesn’t always know (or care) what I want, but Sumo seems to know what I need. Of course that is difficult to recognize at times. For example that time, oh about ten minutes ago when she pawed at my iPad and managed to somehow delete my entire blog entry and wipe out all my progress.

I have lost friends this year. I am still grieving for a couple that I lost recently. Underlying my grief is gratitude. Gratitude for being able to accept that the only constant in life is change. I feel gratitude for having had the opportunity to have shared a part of my life with them. I am who I am because of their influence. Lastly, I have immense gratitude for the people who I still have in my life who support me and my ideas.

I realize how fortunate I am that Thanksgiving came when it did. This opportunity to ground myself and stoke my excitement about the future came at the perfect time.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” - William Arthur Ward (1921 - 1994)