Thankfulness For What I Lack

This one might leave an ego bruise.

Thanksgiving Day has come and many of us gathered with friends and loved ones for that awkward moment just before we overate. Someone (usually a mother, but not always) went around the table and had everyone state something they are thankful for.

Do I have a show stopper for you.

We could have told them we are thankful for what we don’t have.

And I don’t mean what we don’t have yet. I mean what we will never have.

If I didn’t have needs I would have a wrong perspective about life and what is most important.

It isn’t the turkey I need although I’m grateful for it.

I need connections — and healthy ones at that.

And over my life I have discovered that I don’t connect well with others and with God if I am self-sufficient.

I need to appreciate that what I lack God supplies me often through others.

You may look at your work and wonder, in the grand scheme of things, what’s the point?

Our lives are blessed through the invisible hands of billions of people. Every road we drive, every building we enter, every life we interact with are all there because each one did something or received something from others living and long gone.

I guess what I am doing is destroying the idea of the self-made man or woman and the arrogance behind the thought that lowers the value of any and every human life to objects we can use and manipulate.

And as to what we contribute, even if it is a smile or an honest days work, trust it is needed and appreciated.

And thank you Norman Rockwell.