Using Thanksgiving to Cultivate Gratitude

On this day of the year, in the United States, we have created a holiday we call Thanksgiving.  Like so many things in this world, the depth and complexities remain hidden from so many of us - often in plain sight.  It is so much easier putting a nice little facade in front of the building to hide its true character which, like humanity itself, has its disappointing features and its redeeming qualities.

Because many of us like to have a good "origin" story, we have adapted events of 1621 to fit our idealized first Thanksgiving feast (though it was not ideal).  In fact, if you need to have a "Europeans in North America" Thanksgiving origin, that would actually be much earlier than 1621, according to this Smithsonian article.  But, we should not ignore that peoples throughout the world have celebrated the harvest and given thanks for the blessings of the Earth and the communities in which they live for probably as long as humans have had cause to be grateful.

And that, my friends, is where the root of my celebration of Thanksgiving comes from.  This day is important to me because it provides me with a ritual event where I am encouraged to think and ponder what it means to give thanks.  

What it means to have gratitude.  

What it means to have my eyes open to see the world with awe and wonder.

I try, most years, to write an annual Thanksgiving blog post.  The first such post stuck with being marginally promotional for the Genuine Faux Farm, local foods, and trying to encourage people to think about where and how their food was raised.  But, there was also real and intentional gratitude embedded in those writings.  There is never anything wrong with being genuinely thankful - and making sure you express joy, contentment, and satisfaction that might come with it.  It just so happened that my life, in particular, followed a tight orbit around the Genuine Faux Farm.  So, it should not be a surprise that my observations of the good things in this world might be filtered through that lens.

Over time, as I became more comfortable with the idea that I did not have to edit what I wanted to say so I wouldn't make a potential customer unhappy with me, I expanded my horizons for sharing in writing how I have gone about giving thanks. I suppose some of that freedom came from a realization that it was highly unlikely that a potential customer was going to read much of our blog anyway - except maybe one quick splurge out of curiosity.  But I think it was more the fact that I have a desire to be helpful to others - and that I do not always feel as if I have the power to accomplish that goal.

And now I speak a truth that I have spoken many Thanksgivings prior to this one.  Giving thanks is difficult.

And that's why having a day set aside for giving thanks is important.

It's not for the holiday feast.  It's not to celebrate a mythical, historical dinner.  It's not to show off for others.  It's not for the holiday shopping.  Or at least it shouldn't be.

It is because cultivating gratitude is HARD.  It is because exercising your awe and wonder for this world and the beings on it is IMPORTANT.

And this brings me back to this photo from July of 2010.  This picture reminds me that I can find reasons to give thanks, even in some of the darkest times.

It was in May of that year that Tammy and I were within a whisker's breadth of terminating the grand project that was the Genuine Faux Farm.  The rains had been so persistent that spring and early summer that our crops were literally drowning in the field.  But, we had committed to a field day to build our first high tunnel that July.  Despite considering cancelling, we decided to honor our commitments and we went through with it.

The rains were still falling up to the moment we started unloading the trailer (in fact there were a few raindrops then as well).  And then, the rains stopped.  The high tunnel was built.  And the sunset broke through the clouds.

There it was.  Something to be awestruck by.  Something that made me look at the world in wonder once more.  Something that provided the tiniest bit of hope.  Something we grabbed and ran with.

There are still miracles - and this was one of them in my life.  The miracle was the simple fact that I found enough energy and will inside of myself to recognize reasons to give thanks.  The miracle came when I lifted my head up from the soggy ground and took a moment to look at the world around me and seek out something positive.  It was difficult and I even felt foolish for reading so much into a sunset.  There was still so much work to be done to recover what looked like a lost season.

But this moment of awe and wonder was a turning point that would have been missed if we hadn't made ourselves READY for it with real effort and real intention.

I found new hope and new energy from that moment forward - because I took a moment to exercise my gratitude muscles.  I slowed down to appreciate the beauty of the world around me and it taught me once again that I was stuck in a rut that was largely of my own making.  Certainly, things were bad as far as our current crops and our farm were concerned.  But, we had so much support from so many people.  We were healthy and capable.  The good Earth had not abandoned us either, we just needed to find new ways to work with it and the current circumstance we were in.

I don't know where you are in your life right now.  I will never fully understand what troubles you or how hard things might be for you.  But, I can tell you that I also struggle sometimes to appreciate my life and offer gratitude for it and the things that surround it.  I can tell you that this seems to be normal as I have yet to find one person who does not fight this from time to time.

I can also tell you that seeking out something that evokes feelings of awe and wonder and working to exercise those gratitude muscles works for me.  Maybe it will work for you too?  We are all different and maybe a picture of a sunflower won't help you out much.  Or maybe it will.

Cultivating gratitude is not supposed to be easy, but the work is good, honest work - and the results are worthy of meaningful thanks.