Thanksgiving a Time of Gratitude that Leads to Service

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

“Thanks are the highest form of thought... gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” 

- G.K. Chesterton

Chesterton’s words kick off my Thanksgiving wish to all this season, that amid the heaps of turkey and gravy, the gatherings of family or friends, that you will experience happiness doubled by wonder.

The path is not steep and it's paved - with gratitude. 

After a year marked by a worldwide pandemic that has led to fundamental changes in the way we live, 2021 has offered hope that things will get better. It has also offered test of our patience, tests on which many have not scored well.  

It’s a good time to remember that the first declaration of an official celebration of Thanksgiving came during an even more trying time - the Civil War. 

It was Abraham Lincoln who finally made Thanksgiving an official holiday inn 1863, one to be celebrated on the third Thursday of November (later moved to the last Thursday of November in 1941.) 

As we take time to celebrate this uniquely American holiday, one which has been marked in various forms on this continent since the late 1500s, we are offered a chance to renew our hearts with gratitude and wonder.

Lincoln’s proclamation reflects the long-observed intent of those who had gone before him as he wrote the holiday would be a time to: 

"Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union." 

This noble purpose of Thanksgiving Day being set aside to praise God for his provision and express our gratefulness for his "deliverances and blessings" and “tender care” for those in need still hold a place for many who will gather with family and friends this week. 

But the most noble purposes of the holiday provide the simple blessings of opportunities for serving those who lack even the most basic of needs, those for whom every day can be a struggle, many of whom live right here in our own community. 

Throughout the year such Anderson County groups as the Haven of Rest, AIM, the Salvation Army, Hope Ministries, Meals on Wheels, Clean Start, the Good Neighbor Cupboard, South Main Chapel and Mercy Center, plus other churches too many to name here and groups working to help those in recovery are committed to turning away from the "national perverseness" of self interest, expressing their gratitude through kindness and generosity to the least of these.  

How we bless those seemingly cannot directly return the blessing is what defines any people. Thanksgiving offers a day to reflect on the level of our personal commitment to make the lives of those around us better. 

Such service often starts with gratitude. 

“Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides. It means that you are willing to stop being such a jerk. When you are aware of all that has been given to you, in your lifetime and the past few days, it is hard not to be humbled, and pleased to give back.” - Anne Lamott 

Gratitude plows the ground and plants seeds that lead to service of others, which, as Lamott notes, is where joy resides. Most can recall a time when they did an act of service, straight from the heart, with no expectation of any direct profit or reciprocal action. Few things resonate stronger in the heart that such action.

Thanksgiving offers a time to challenge ourselves with the question: “What am I doing to make my community a better place for at least one person other than myself? 

It may be as simple as regularly visit a friend or an elderly relative, seeing to it their needs are not overlooked. It may manifest itself in volunteering at any of the great places already mentioned to serve others, many of whom we don’t know personally, in ways that provide basic needs or support.

Those who are doing for others can deeply understand the sentiment behind Walt Whitman’s quote: “The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him – it cannot fail.” 

Thanksgiving kicks off six weeks of a holiday season which offers multiple opportunities to experience the ultimate gift, that of giving. 

Thankfully, the trend of opening retail stores on Thanksgiving Day for shoppers, with little regard to their employees missing their own family gatherings, is slowly losing ground. Most major retailers who temporarily suspended Thanksgiving sales during the pandemic, have made the practice standard procedure, at least for the time being. 

Three holiday cheers for this step forward toward recognizing the humanity of retail workers.

But the days after Thanksgiving usher in the most difficult of days for our friends, family and neighbors working retail. 

Add to the pressure of long hours and generally below-average wages, irritable shoppers freely express a rude anger reserved for the holiday season on retail workers who are simply trying to deal with the crush of consumers.  

Manifestations of the season of goodwill and cheer often do not find the way to the killing floors of retail establishments. 

They deserve better and each of us can help. The pandemic has left many understaffed as well as facing increased pressure from the return of shoppers after a very weird year. Shoppers need to take a deep breath before entering any store and practice the conscious practice of patience throughout the visit. If you are angry, save the shouting until you are back in your car, where you can turn up the music and release any frustrations that often arise in crowded shopping arenas. 

The reward for such behavior is two-fold. It obviously benefits the tired retail worker expecting the worse from harried shoppers. But it an also be the birth of a more peaceful, centered holiday season for shoppers as well, who start their trips with a sense of gratitude and not a dark cloud of stress.  

Gratitude is the gift that never stops giving. 

Research is conclusive that those who approach life with a sense of gratitude have fewer mental and physical problems, live longer, exhibit less stress, have a stronger immune system, and even handle loss far better than those who do not live life with the recognition that they do indeed have much for which to be grateful. 

How does a person get to that place, a place where gratitude is more than an occasional occurrence?  

The best place to start, according to one study, is to verbally acknowledge those things for which you are thankful every day. 

Not just today.

Those in this study who wrote a daily gratitude list for one full year said the experience profoundly changed their lives. 

Stories of overcoming depression, lowering  blood pressure, and even healing of relationships were common among those who finished the year-long gratitude list project. 

So make your first holiday gift this year one for yourself. Commit to a daily practice of gratitude, verbal or written for the next 365 days. You won't be sorry. 

“Gratitude opens your heart, and opening your heart is a wonderful and easy way for God to slip in.” 

- Ram Dass

I think our sixteenth president would have liked this quote, and encouraged fostering the practice of gratitude this holiday season.