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Writer's pictureRachel Conrad Carlson

An Honest Thanksgiving

Here we are, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, surrounded by the chaos of this particular post-election season. Perhaps you find yourself battling your own personal fears and frustrations and bitterness. Perhaps you find the possibilities of the next four years too overwhelming to ponder, your imagination coupling with your knowledge of history to instill a dread deep in your consciousness. Or perhaps politics is the least of your worries, as you battle through mental health struggles, or financial realities or disintegrating relationships.  Whatever it is, know that you are not alone in any heaviness you may feel in this week of national Thanksgiving. 


As I contemplate the patterns of gratefulness in my own life, I am reminded of truths that have held me steady in the storms for many years now. When fear and anxiety lurk at the corners of my mind, I am often able to shift my mind’s eye to the good things right in front of me. Ok, let’s be honest… it’s usually more of a dragging of my internal eye away from the scary realities (or could-be realities), and blinking hard to try to focus on the positives. But they are always there. 


Sometimes the good things are the small rhythms of nature—the crimson leaf floating on the gentle breeze, the slant of light puddling softly on the wood floor, the lap of water against the lily pad in the pond by the nature center—reminding me that everything has a season, and this (heavy thing) too shall pass. Thinking of life in seasons helps a lot, actually. It’s one of the ways I find the light when the darkness looms. 


When I feel like I can’t hear myself think in the sensory-storm that is my daily life at home with my three girls, I remember that these ages and stages are truly a fleeting season and will disappear in a blink of an eye. And it allows me to truly see their beautiful faces through the noise and hold them near. When I feel distant from the ones I love and long to be close to, I remember that I want my relationships to last for the long haul, and that there are naturally seasons of closeness and distance. And then I try to schedule one small outing with at least one person I care about, to keep the isolation from closing in. When I think of the political upheaval and all the potential harm to come, I remind myself that this is only one season in America’s history, that we have survived even worse than this. And I dare myself to feel hope for the future, and to fight once again for that future to arrive. 


In order to find real thankfulness within me, I remember the bigger picture, the truths that do not shake and fade. The readings from Mass today reinforce my efforts as they remind us of the unshakeable nature of God. Daniel 7:14 says that God’s “dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away,  his kingship shall not be destroyed.” And in Psalm 93, the Psalmist writes that God’s “throne stands firm from of old; from everlasting you are, O LORD.” A paraphrased version of a C.S. Lewis quote says that without God there is no good in this world. Since God’s reign is everlasting and indestructible, we can remain confident that there will always be good because there is always God. 


So this week, even while we acknowledge the hard, we can also seek out the good surrounding us. We can hear the love in a voice (even when the words aren’t perfect), we can relish all the effort put into producing a meal of such great bounty (sometimes at great cost to the maker), we can sit amongst the kids and tell jokes (even if they’re goofy) and revel in the giggles that follow. And most of all, we can remember that God outlives and outdoes all human foolishness, and that God’s promises remain true today and forever.



 

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