Thanks and Giving

Doing Gratitude has become an essential way of life for me in our cynical world. Although our consumer society does its best to make Thanksgiving about food, especially turkey, and the beginning of a shopping opportunity, at its inception it was meant to be a celebration of thanks.  I hope you took the opportunity to be grateful and count your own blessings, despite the complexities of spending time with family and friends and the foibles that often arise. One of the joys of being in a giving or service profession is the opportunity to witness how patients cope; patients dealing with more pain, more health challenges, or difficult life circumstances than I can imagine. Let me tell you about Bob (not his real name).

Bob gets around in a wheel chair due to his health issues, but manages to transfer into a kayak during the summer months. His joy is paddling with his girl—a dog—along one of the many rivers that flow into Narragansett Bay and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. I saw Bob on Wednesday for his monthly check in and he and his girl were busy preparing for Thanksgiving. He had “hit,” his words, three church Thanksgiving distributions and even secured a $50 gift certificate to one of the upscale food stores. He planned to spend the afternoon making pies: mincemeat and pumpkin. He would be spending Thanksgiving with his girl.Now Bob has a lot to be sad about: the death of a parent a few months ago, sibs who don’t talk to him, an even more recent death of a neighbor who watched football with him, several hospitalizations over the last few months, the loss of his nurse’s aid who came daily and the difficulty of finding another . . .  the list continues and includes several illnesses I would not wish to have.But Bob was upbeat. I mentioned his positive attitude to him and without missing a beat he told me his deceased parent had instilled that in him. “I have a lot to be thankful for,” he said. “And I love to cook.”Bob reminds me to be grateful and to fill my life with joy, doing things I love. In a giving or service profession, we can often become depleted. So finding that balance is critical and fodder for another blog.But today I am reminded to the St. Francis Prayer, one of my Dad’s favorites:For it in giving we receive, in pardoning we are pardoned.So on this extended weekend I wish you the joy that comes with both giving and receiving as you give thanks.