It’s always a challenge to write a seasonal blog. That’s because you do it every year, and everybody else is doing the same thing thematically, too. And most of y’all work in ministry, so you know what I mean, because you’re in the business of designing worship and other special events (which people will relentlessly critique even when they are in the middle of participating in them), and you’re racking your brain to invent a fresh creative approach that will help those people experience the season in some profoundly moving way that they’ve never experienced before. Well, I salute you, but I’m also here to say, “Relax.” A plain old expression of thanks never goes out of style, and so I offer you a grateful “Chur, bro,” and a list of things that make the daily grind a little more fun and a lot more inspiring.
Here’s my list of 20 random things that make me smile this Thanksgiving week. I hope you pause to make your own list of 20 or 10 or five or three things that you’re thankful for, and as grateful as you are – and should be – for the basic blank-fillers on that list (your family, your home, your health, sunsets, hopefully even your work), I hope you throw in some of the quirky delights that give you a chuckle or keep you going when things feel like a grind.
Meditate upon these things. Take some quiet time to think them through. And don’t forget to consider how you may be these things for others (or can be these things for others in the future!) Small efforts can produce big effects!
There is special magic in writing such things down. If you are a person who never pauses to write down a list of things for which you are grateful / little things that make you smile / tiny ways you might be a blessing to others . . . try it. If you already have that habit, give it a twist by writing your list in an unexpected and unlikely place (in lipstick on your mirror; in chalk on your driveway for all the world to see; with a Lite-Brite in neon colors). Act on your gratitude: call one person you’ve been meaning to call to let them know you are thinking about them; write a note to one person you’ve been meaning to tell how special they are to you. It’s good for them; it’s great for you; it gives the universe a karmic boost.
Here’s my list for this moment in time:
- I’m thankful for readers. This blog thing feels like a dialogue with you folks out there, even though we rarely interact directly. It’s like writing messages in little bottles and throwing them into the sea, but as such, an exercise in hope. I appreciate your engagement, and I always hope there’s something here you can use, however small. (And if you are my wife, Melanie, who reads on occasion just to see what I’m up to, “Hi, honey! Thanks for reading.”) She’s the best.
- I’m thankful for people who decorate their yards and houses for the holidays.
- I’m thankful for the people who always hang around and offer to help clean up after any event. God bless them 😊
- I’m thankful for people who proofread their texts.
- I’m thankful for the invention of the automatic coffee maker. How cool is it to get up and the coffee is already brewed and waiting?
- I’m thankful for young people in my life, even though I don’t understand half their slang.
- I’m thankful I can google the slang of young people.
- I’m thankful that we can listen to any music from any era at any time (and really that’s just one sliver of the thanks due the instantaneous ubiquity of information about anything and everything, including slang).
- I’m thankful for the bats that come out every night on cue – fascinating creatures, and they eat mosquitoes, too!
- I’m thankful for pie.
- I’m thankful for creative people who keep shaping new perspectives for visiting old ideas. (I’m also thankful for new ideas. And I’m also thankful for old ideas that are so good and so true that they refuse to be supplanted.)
- I’m thankful for people who are brave enough to share their pain so that others can be stronger.
- I’m thankful for people who respond to texts.
- I’m thankful for a day cool enough to slip on a sweater but not so cold as to make my hand hurt.
- I’m thankful for the poetry of Naomi Shihab Nye.
- I’m thankful for a bike ride, any bike ride.
- I’m thankful for friends who recommend good books.
- I’m thankful for salad with crunchy bits.
- I’m thankful for plants that refuse to die.
- I’m thankful for caps that fit your head just right.
- I’m thankful for the end of one thing and the beginning of the next.
Share a couple of your favorite smile-producing blessings in the comments section. Hug your family. Say a prayer for the folks with whom you work. Go forth a be a blessing this and every day!
Did you google “chur, bro”? So many fun ways around the world to share thanks! I hope to use it in situ in New Zealand one of these days.
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