Back Home by Chris Hardie
As we head into another Thanksgiving, I have to admit that I am having a difficult time this year getting myself into a thankful frame of mind.
I suspect I am not alone. There is too much turmoil, too much dissension and too much uncertainty in our world today. It is overwhelming at times. I am by nature a positive person, but as we slide into the darker days of winter, the tunnel closes in and it’s hard to see the light.
This will be a quiet holiday for my wife Sherry and I, sandwiched in between work days. Our children will spend time with their in-laws’ families. I don’t need a fully-loaded table of food to be thankful for my family.
There are many myths and misconceptions about the origin of Thanksgiving and the story about the autumn feast harvest shared between the Plymouth colonists and the Native American Wampanoag people at Cape Cod in 1621. There was likely no turkey – how about eels, seafood and venison – and certainly no pumpkin pie as there was no flour, butter or sugar.
We did discover this past year that one of Sherry’s ancestors was one of the 102 that crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower, but was not wearing black and white clothing with large buckles on his shoes, a historical inaccuracy. Thanksgiving was celebrated by some colonies and states but wasn’t declared a national holiday until President Abraham Lincoln did so in 1863.
Giving thanks requires us to change our mindset from self-centeredness to awareness. It makes us focus on the positive parts of our life rather than on what’s going wrong.
Thinking about Thanksgiving brought me back to 2002. To celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, we gifted our church choir – which we were both part of – some sheet music. One of the songs was “Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart,” by Henry Smith. Smith has composed more than 300 worship songs, but “Give Thanks” from 1978 is the only one to be published.
During the early years of the song’s use it was recorded by many others, listed as author unknown or attributed to other artists. In 1986 a friend brought Smith a recording of the song by Integrity Music. Smith contacted the publisher and proved that the song was his.
The song was part of the Give Thanks live worship album recorded by American singer and songwriter Don Moen and has been translated into other languages and has been recorded and featured in many different songbooks and hymnals.
Smith wrote the song during a difficult time in his life – he was unemployed and had an uncertain future due to a degenerative visual impairment that would lead to him becoming legally blind. Clearly he had plenty of reasons to be less than thankful, but the song’s lyrics – based on Bible verses – described the power of thanks.
“And now let the weak say, I am strong,
Let the poor say, I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us.
Give thanks.”
I remember having goosebumps the first time the choir sang this song. Because even if you’re not religious, it’s a powerful reminder that we can all be thankful for our blessings – of which there are many.
But instead of just one day of being thankful, what would happen if we built that into a daily feeling of gratitude. The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, which means grace, graciousness or gratefulness.
When we feel gratitude, we acknowledge the goodness in our lives and recognize that the source of that goodness lies in part outside of ourselves. So being grateful connects us with people, nature or a higher power – maybe all three – that is larger than us.
I’d say that gratitude combined with a little humility and a dash of common sense is sorely needed in our world today.
I will do my best to push away the negativity and sorrow of the world for at least one day this Thanksgiving.
I invite you to join me – let’s give thanks.
Chris Hardie spent more than 30 years as a reporter, editor
