11-22-22 - Preemptive Gratitude

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. 

It’s Tuesday. What are you thankful for? “But we don’t have to be thankful till Thursday…,” you may think. But I like to be ahead of the curve, so why not start the thankfulness part of Thanksgiving early? Then we’ll be all warmed up when the Day comes around.

I’m only half-joking… thankfulness can be a great antidote to stress. If we’re devoting at least part of our attention to being aware of what we’re grateful for, there’s that much less space available to worry about what we’ve done, not done, or don’t know when we’ll get done.

So today, if you’re at your desk checking off the “must-do-before-Wednesday” tasks, give God thanks for your job, for your colleagues, for the difference you make in this world as you use your gifts.

Of if you’re wandering a grocery store – give thanks for all the food and all the people who got it there, and all the people who work there, and the resources to buy it…

Or if you’re cooking, you might give thanks for the recipes and who they came from, the ingredients, other meals like this; the people who will be gathering around the table…

Or if you’re cleaning – give thanks for the rooms and who lives in them and the blessings they’ve hosted; and if you’re preparing to see family, there are some thank yous…

Or if you’re packing, give thanks for the clothing and the circumstances by which you came to own those things, when you’ve worn it before… what else?

Or if you’re traveling, give thanks for the technology that makes it possible to get from here to there.. and if getting from here to there ends up taking longer than we hoped or planned, I guess we’ll have that much more time to think of things to be grateful for.

I know I don't need to tell you how to be grateful! You’re probably better at it than I am. The “gratitude as stress reducer” thing might just catch on, though… it could get us through the next four days... and the next few years.

As soon as I feel a stressful thought coming on, I’m going to acknowledge it, and then chase it with a grateful one. Why not beat the rush?

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