Now is a big time for thankfulness, obviously. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Christmas and New Years aren’t far behind. The holiday season is often a time of self-reflection for many, myself included. Looking back on the last couple of years, I have a full life of things to be thankful for. 

My mind tends to turn to the negative. I guess I’m kind of a whiner by nature. Or maybe I’m just pessimistic. I don’t mean I whine about little stuff like aches and pains. I come in with big, existential woes about the state of the world and how much everything sucks. It has to be exhausting for the people closest to me. Thank you for loving me, Family. 

Choosing to be thankful, despite the real, not-made-up-or-over-inflated state-of-the-world problems is HARD. It’s very trendy to talk about thankfulness and gratitude these days, but again, with my pessimistic brain, I tend to distrust people who go on and on about gratitude. It’s the new #blessed. It seems disingenuous. But being thankful really is a choice. Making this choice can sometimes help me be a present parent, hell a present human being. My eyes aren’t closed to the problems of the world, with which I’m sure you can identify. We can list off the lots of issues that seem to have always been here but aren’t getting solved any time soon, racism and the climate crisis among the top items on the list. 

Sometimes I feel like choosing to be thankful in spite of these big problems means I’m ignoring the problems altogether. Only recently have I discovered that being thankful for my good health allows me to see and feel for those who don’t have it. Being thankful for my opportunities allows me to do work and make room for those who haven’t had them. Being thankful for what I have been given or been able to earn is the first step in acknowledging how I can help others. Without taking the step of thankfulness, the steps toward action and problem-solving cannot follow. 

So instead of treating thankfulness as a passive pose of resting on unearned laurels, let’s treat it as an active first stride. I’m not far along in the journey yet, certainly not above anyone over here, so let’s go together. Let’s be thankful and then take action.