The Paradox In Giving Thanks

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

Here, in the US, this is the season of Thanksgiving and it’s a wonderful time to remember who and what we should all be grateful for (putting aside the fact that giving thanks should be a daily activity). 

When doing so, though, one of the things that we tend to struggle with is the duality and contradiction of so much in our daily existence. 

Specifically, when it comes to the people in our lives, it’s entirely possible that we can value them and still accept their differences, even when those differences are, in our eyes, significant. 

Similarly, we can be thankful for where we are in our development or our careers without excusing the fact that we still have much work to do.

Because being thankful is about, well, exactly that - being thankful for exactly where we are and what we have.

That we can value where we are and the progress we have made regardless of the work still to be done, or that we can have people in our lives who care for us and make us better in some way despite the fact that we don’t agree on many, many ‘material’ issues. 

We cannot wait for or expect perfection or complete alignment before we can give thanks, because that cannot and will not (always) be the case. 

It’s about progress in some way (you define that). It’s about alignment in the things that matter. The point is, the underlying intent or value or access or (psychic) benefit and where we would be without it.

Again, we don’t need, nor can we expect, perfection and resolution to be thankful. 

We just need to understand ourselves and where we are, those around us and where they are, and understand that we have the ability to keep going. 

Happy Thanksgiving.