A Time for Gratitude

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~Melody Beattie

Thanksgiving is a beautiful time of the year and one we can all appreciate. We get to enjoy family, friends, fun, food and be grateful for all we have. It’s our special reminder to stop the craziness of everyday life and just enjoy the good we have been blessed with. Even though I believe more days of the year should be spent enjoying and celebrating our blessings, I understand it’s difficult for most of us to stop our schedule to give thanks and come together. So today I’m grateful for this wonderful American tradition that sort of forces us to take a day and enjoy one another in joy, abundance and love for life!

Today I am grateful for YOU for sharing this moment with me while reading my blog. I’m grateful for family, friends, clients and the opportunity to reach out to you and share my thoughts in this blog. I’m grateful for the inspiration that God gives me and the words to be able to inspire you a few times a month in this space.

Over the years I’ve come to understand that the Holiday’s can be a very difficult time for those who have lost a loved one. We spend years coming together, laughing, loving and sharing and then in an instant they are gone. With their absence we are left with an incredible void that nothing can fill. Suddenly life seems pointless and meaningless without them as we struggle to carry on. Thanksgiving can be especially difficult for those whose tradition has been interrupted by the loss of mother, grandmother or whoever it was that always opened their home for everyone to come over. Everything seems lost and out-of-place without them… nothing is as it was and pain is all that comes to overwhelm us and remind us of our great loss.

Sadly death is an inevitable part of life and in our society we just aren’t taught to handle it properly. In this day and age death is still a taboo subject that we brush under the rug and pretend is never going to touch us. We fail to realize that if we simply changed our views about life and death this difficult chapter in all our lives wouldn’t be so heartbreaking and pain filled. Now I’m not saying that there is any way we can experience the death of a loved one without grief and suffering because that would be not only impossible but ridiculous.

What I am trying to say is that if we take the time to celebrate our loves ones to the fullest while they are alive we just might have less regrets when they are gone. If we are more honest about death and we open ourselves to discussing the inevitable we might be able to not only make peace with it but plan for it as well. We can get grandma’s favorite apple pie recipe while she’s still with us and then bake it every year after she’s gone in her memory. We can discuss the details with mom about one day having Thanksgiving at our house and get all her ideas and secrets for doing such an amazing job at it. We can take a moment to accept and prepare ourselves that our parents, grandparents and loved ones aren’t going to be around forever so we need to put our feelings in order about it.

In short there is a lot we can do to prepare for death before it happens, ask questions, speak the unspoken and make peace with it all. We can honor our loves ones that have passed and celebrate their lives during all those holidays that they aren’t with us anymore. We can start new traditions, light a candle, bring out their photo or cook their favorite meal in an effort to feel them close and remember them with love instead of drowning in the pain of their absence. Life is all about choices and today I invite you to live in gratitude for all the beautiful moments you shared with them instead of continually mourning what is no more. In life and in death – Gratitude really does make all the difference in the world!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~Oprah Winfrey