What are you thankful for this year? Answering this question is the traditional start to Thanksgiving dinner with my family. Unfortunately, as with many things in 2020, Thanksgiving will look different this year. For us this will mean staying home. Our normal celebrations of visiting both sides of the family and enjoying wonderful home cooked meals while catching up with relatives we have not seen in a while, will have to wait. This year we will be cooking our own meal and connecting with family through technology. Things will be different, but the fact that we will not be with our parents, siblings, nieces and nephews or aunts and uncles should not diminish the importance of this day. Rather, it should strengthen it and we should approach this most important holiday with renewed thankfulness and optimism.
This year has been difficult on many levels. Disease, death, financial insecurity, cultural instability, political strife, restrictions, stay at home orders and fundamental changes to how we live our lives and who we interact with have caused high levels of stress and anxiety. It feels like we have lost so many things and we wonder when we will get them back. We wonder when life will return to normal. At the same time, we are trying to balance those thoughts with ongoing feelings of fear as we pray that we will not get sick, that our kids will not get sick and that our friends and loved ones will not be touched by this horrible virus.
As we near the end of this challenging year we should be thankful for those aspects of our lives that we miss, with renewed hope of returning to them soon, while offering thanks for what we still have. If this year has taught us anything, it is to never take what we have for granted and to thank God every day for our many blessings. This year has also shown us the importance of taking time to be present in the moment and to enjoy life because we do not know what tomorrow will bring. I started 2020 with a major health issue, so this year I am thankful for life itself. I thank God every day when I wake up in the morning for the opportunity of a new day and before I go to sleep at night for the blessings that I received. I am thankful for the time I have spent at home with my kids the past eight months as life slowed down due to the pandemic. I am thankful for Gods love and His presence in my life. I am thankful for the roof over my head, the food that we will enjoy this Thanksgiving Day and for those that will be gathered around the table. As I have said many times in the past, my greatest joy in life is being a husband and a father. What a beautiful sight it will be to look across the table as we sit down to give thanks and see the people that I am most thankful for in my life, my wife and kids.
I will also be thinking back with fondness to Thanksgivings past and remembering the commotion that would ensue as we all filled our plates, the joy that I would feel upon seeing my uncle who visits from New York each year, the lively conversations about current events and the overall feeling of peace I would experience being in the presence of family. I will be imagining what next year will be like when we can all get together again to share a meal and tell stories about what it was like living through a pandemic. Advent starts this weekend which means that Christmas will be here before we know it and it is unlikely that things will improve before then. Memories of how things used to be, the joy of living in the moment and the anticipation of getting back to what we consider normal, can help us navigate this new territory that we are about to embark on over the next couple of months. As Saint John Paul II expressed so perfectly, “Remember the past with gratitude, live the present with enthusiasm and look forward to the future with confidence.”
This year my focus on Thanksgiving will be enjoying the day with my family and giving thanks to Almighty God for my many blessings. In my post, Easter 2020, from earlier this year I stated “Now more than ever we need to turn to prayer, appreciate Gods presence in our lives, remember His message and live our lives in preparation for the gift of salvation that awaits us.” These words still hold true seven months later and as we celebrate Thanksgiving and prepare to enter the season of Advent, I would add – Now more than ever we need to express our gratitude to God with joy and enthusiasm.
As we gather around the table on Thursday for our much smaller and more intimate meals, let us turn to God with humility, offer him thanks and praise and pray – Today we give thanks for our many blessings and pray for those less fortunate. We give thanks for our family and friends and pray for those who are lonely. We give thanks for our home and security and pray for those who are homeless. We give thanks for our health and pray for those who are sick. On this day of Thanksgiving, May the love of God enfold us, the peace of God dwell within us, and the joy of God uplift us. Amen.
Have a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!