Why? Because I Can Choose to Be So. I Am Compelled.
by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 11/21/2021
My thoughts from last Thanksgiving. Sadly, they are all the more pertinent.
An understatement: 2020, (and now 2021 as well) has been a year like no other. War weary as we are after 2 years, masking and boosters remain essential.
At some point around Thanksgiving 2019 is when it began: That first infection. We celebrated 2020’s sparkly arrival as a New Year in customarily festive fashion, gathering with family and friends. Gathering – one of our joyous pastimes, now gone. We have lost much in these recent years. Friends. Loved ones. Livelihoods. Businesses. Trust. Last year it was 250,000. Now there are over 750,000 empty seats at the family table this year. However, statistics ring hollow to those who must endure these devastating losses personally. How do they give thanks?
In such a year as this one where hardship surrounds us all, we have to look within. What lies within us that we can be thankful for? What shred of resilience can we muster in order to still be thankful? Hard times offer no easy answers.
First, it’s difficult to be thankful; to engage in thanks–giving without some practice. Rising with the first glimmer of each day I am thankful and grateful for its promise. I take in that early moment with gratitude. The day will bring forth other moments. My task? Convert those moments flowing from my future into memories – good ones. A day well spent.
This daily practice of thankfulness for time’s open-ended future, for opportunity, for that which is yet to be, gradually becomes a habit, then a mindset. Time is the greatest gift I could ever imagine. And so, apart from present circumstance, I remain thankful for the possible, for those future better days of my own making.
Admittedly, the gift of future time has been stolen from so many who have passed.
May you find some time for thanks.
May you find some thanks for time.
May you find some thanks for time.
I wish you health, wealth, wisdom and love. And time, precious time for all of the above.
And – as always –
Thank you for listening to wfpr●fm.
And, thank you for watching.
Get this week's program guide for Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) online http://franklin.tv/programguide.pdf
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| Franklin TV: Still and Ever, Thankful– V2.0 |
Thank you, Pete. The message still applies, all the more this year.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for Thanksgiving to you as well.