One of the lessons many of us learned at a young age was to say please and thank-you. While teaching a child these simple words is meant to help the child learn to be polite in their interactions with others, expressing thanks — gratitude — is a significant attribute for… Read More »Leaning Into Gratitude
It’s much the same this year as it was last year….and the year before that. In the week before the Thanksgiving holiday, many TV shows in the United States have a Thanksgiving-themed episode. They generally follow the same plot: a holiday dinner with family that turns into the height of… Read More »Thanksgiving: The Way It Is
Have you considered that most things that happen in our lives are neither essentially good nor bad but some ambiguous mix that we consider “ordinary?” Perhaps one of the most haunting melodies in contemporary music is Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah! Since his death on November 7, 2016, the song has been… Read More »Gratitude and Hallelujah!
It’s much the same this year as it was last year….and the year before that. In the week before the Thanksgiving holiday, many TV shows in the United States have a Thanksgiving-themed episode. They generally follow the same plot: a holiday dinner with family that turns into the height of… Read More »Thanksgiving As It Is
Thanksgiving Dinner: friends and family gather; recipes are shared; people travel great distances to be with loved ones. There’s something unique and special about the American Thanksgiving holiday. I have fond memories of Thanksgiving from my childhood, with my mother making a unique stuffing for the turkey as well as… Read More »A Difficult Conversation for Thanksgiving Dinner
Often, when friends I haven’t seen or spoken to in some time ask how things are going with me, I begin by saying, “I have a wonderful life.” The truth is that I do have a wonderful life. I live in a middle class neighborhood just outside of Atlanta. I… Read More »I Have a Wonderful Life
It’s a lesson I’m sure I won’t forget. When I think of gratitude and what it means to be thankful, my mind journeys back in time to the late 1970s and rural West Virginia. For about two years, I lived and worked at a small friary outside of Morgantown, West… Read More »Thanks and Gratitude
As we gather around this table, we pause to give thanks: For the gift of life that enables us to be here today; For kindness and love shown to us by others; For the wonder of our planet that surrounds us with beauty and bounty; For hope that goodness will… Read More »Blessing for Thanksgiving Dinner
