"Happy Tuesday!"
When I was drinking I focused on were I would be celebrating Thanksgiving, the night before, the night of and the days or nights that followed. I thought about me! I thought about me! I thought about me! Yes, that's right I thought about me and everything else that had to do with having a drunken time. I really never cared about Thanksgiving, I never thought about the turkey, family, the desserts or the meaning of the holiday all in itself. Why is that? "Hmmm,...lets see, it didn't have anything to do with me?" Of course! Very simple! I really never bothered to learn the meaning, understand the meaning or really cared about the meaning. All I knew was that it was a Holiday and I was going to have extra days off from school, from work or whatever I was engaged in at that time. Again, what I was getting out of it, how it was benefiting me and how my thinking of a holiday, such as Thanksgiving was truly distorted in my mind! I had the wrong meaning of Thanksgiving!
What is Thanksgiving? To me it is love, togetherness, gratitude, feeling thankful, saying thank you, respect for others, paying it forward, sharing, fellowship, giving, compassion for those who are less fortunate, volunteering, asking for help, appreciation for others, acceptance, detaching with love, unselfishness, kindness and the list could go on. Today, since I have been sober for over 18 years, I look back at all those times I once dismissed the true blessing of Thanksgiving and know now that gratitude was truly my saving grace. Gratitude gave me so many gifts in my life, rather it be challenging or not, I always saw the message of gratitude.
How did I learn how to do that? I wanted too! I was willing! I was ready to be teachable no matter what I had to face. I did not want to walk around sober and still have negativity pulling me down. I did not want to feel stuck in my emotions or rather someone else emotions and walk around like a feel sorry for me sober individual. I wanted my recovery to be positive, growing and always teachable with a hug of humility! I, of course, had a lot of work to do on myself, but that was alright I no longer feared the truth of my character defects. I no longer needed to blame others of why I acted or did the things I did. I no longer looked at Thanksgiving in a distorted way. I was thankful for Thanksgiving. So, I ask all of you who read my blog today, tomorrow or the days to come that it is never to late to feel thankful or to give thanks where it is needed or neglected. It is not about the shopping, the black Friday sales or the food you will be engaging in, rather it is about understanding gratitude in our lives throughout the year! Pick out one person in your life you struggle with and write down something you are grateful for with that person,...if you struggle with it,...your not working hard enough to see the message. If so, figure out why it is so hard to figure out your gratitude,...most likely it has to do with your own issues rather than theirs. I will finish with a prayer or short statement to read today or perhaps before your wonderful feast and like always Many Blessings to all...
May We Appreciate and Remember Today may we appreciate this food and remember those who are hungry. May we appreciate our family and friends and remember those who are alone.
May we appreciate our health and remember those who are sick.
May we appreciate the freedoms we have and remember those who suffer injustice and tyranny.
Peace on earth.
by: Beliefnet member LisetteFC
Sobriety Fitness by Cathy Shuba is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.sobrietyfitness.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available a
