There is much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, despite having our lives disrupted by a deadly pandemic.
Certainly, the COVID-19 crisis is nothing to be downplayed or minimized. It is the largest catastrophe most of us have experienced in our lifetimes. It is perfectly normal to have a hard time feeling much thankfulness at a time like this. It’s natural to feel stress and anxiety when our world has been so altered. No one should feel guilty if they’re having a difficult time coping.
Most disasters hit hard and then they end. It may take some time to recover, but the worst is over after an earthquake, a hurricane, a wildfire, or an untimely death. And most calamities don’t hit everyone at once. We see major disasters on the TV news, but usually we’re not directly impacted.
This pandemic is worse than anything we’ve witnessed because it goes on and on and on, day after day, week after week and month after month, getting worse instead of better. And literally everyone is impacted. Every person in every city and town across America. Young people, old people and everyone in between. It is no respecter of persons.
The pandemic has dramatically undercut the economy, costing jobs and forcing business closures. It has shut down schools and church services, overrun our healthcare system, and disrupted group activities. Young mothers with children have been heavily impacted, especially single working mothers who have to juggle work, household duties, and overseeing children learning at home. It’s almost overwhelming for many people.
So it’s understandable if we don’t have much of an attitude of gratitude this Thanksgiving, especially as we are discouraged from gathering with extended family.
Still, if we count our blessings, we will find many. We really should make the effort to feel thankful. It will be worth it. Being grateful is much more about attitude than anything else. Remember the old saying from Andrew Carnegie: “Two men looked out from prison bars; One saw mud, the other saw stars.”
Gratitude is even more important in an extended crisis, because if we learn to be grateful, we will cope much better with the difficulties. We will have better mental and physical health. Our relationships will be stronger. We will have more joy in our lives.
Gratitude really does make the world a better place. When we feel gratitude, we’re better husbands, better wives, better friends, better children, better siblings. We will have more friends. We’ll be more successful in our jobs and professions.
All these things will happen naturally if we feel and express gratitude. At a time like this, it’s especially important to feel gratitude for the little things – the beauty of a sunset, the stars on a dark night, the crunch of autumn leaves, the laugh of a child, feeling a tiny hand in yours. With or without a crisis, we will never be happy if we don’t feel grateful for the little things in life.
If we are a religious person, we can be grateful for a broader perspective, for faith that there is something much bigger than what we are going through. We can be grateful for our understanding of the purpose of life and what our potential is, and the conviction that we will learn from this experience and be the better for it in the eternities.
And, most importantly, we can be grateful for our families, friends and loved ones, for those we are walking side-by-side with as we continue this journey.
Gratitude is just what we need to get through this pandemic.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving day tomorrow.
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