With Thanksgiving just 1 day from today, we are often soul searching to find what we are thankful for. To some, Thanksgiving is a holiday to get together, watch football, and eat a feast and go shopping for the special deals in the store and online and nothing more. For those who want more of a deeper meaning to Thanksgiving, we have to begin with ourselves.
To be thankful, you have to put yourself in a position to feel joy, happiness and contentment no matter what situation you are in. We are not only thankful when have a great job/career that give us a lavish lifestyle and everything is running smoothly in our lives but can we be thankful when we lose our job/career, when we become homeless, been hit with an illness or been hurt by others?
When life is good, it is easy to be thankful and be happy but real gratefulness begins when we are in the deepest, and darkest part of life and from the outside there is nothing to be thankful for. Instead of giving in to the despair and losing hope because we cannot change the situation we are in, we are then challenged to only change ourselves and not the situation. By changing ourselves, we find true joy, happiness and contentment. Tomorrow, when we sit at the table for Thanksgiving, be thankful knowing that your situation does not define you as a person but what defines you is your character to be truthful to yourself and to others. You are not define by what others think and say about you or what material things you have. Having hope and faith, you will soon see the glimmer of light amidst the darkness. It is then you are able to feel what true thanksgiving is all about.
Once you change yourself, your situation will soon change along with it. Just like a star in the night sky, it can only shine and be seen by the human eyes when the sky is clear and is not blocked by man-made structures.