To Inspire:

Thanksgiving is almost here. A quieter, family-filled time before the chaos of the holiday season gets underway, the very essence of the holiday is to express appreciation and thankfulness for the blessings in our lives. Gratitude is so important, but sometimes can be hard to find. Guideposts writer Rick Hamlin recently shared a story about a time that he struggled spiritually and found his way back through gratitude.

Hamlin struggled recovering from open heart surgery. Several weeks post-op he felt lost, depressed. He was doing all the things he was supposed to do – walking each day, eating healthy foods, and trying to stay mentally active but did not feel like he was getting better. And he was mad at God.

Years before he worked with TV reporter and writer Deborah Norville on an article about gratitude during which she shared her belief in writing down what you are grateful for. So, unable to do much physically, one day he decided the only task he was up for was writing a thank you note.

“I sat on the side of my bed and took out a note card. I looked over at the gifts people had sent. There was a bowl my coworker Celeste had given me for my oatmeal, the perfect thing. But why write her? I would see her soon enough back at the office. I could say something then. She wouldn’t be expecting anything from me.

No, I needed to write it down now, all my gratitude. I would forget it in a couple of days. I scrawled a few sentences. At once there was an inner ping, as sure as the clanging of a bell: “Yes, that’s right. That’s you, Rick. That’s who you are. That’s where you want to be.”

I was hungry to be grateful, desperate like a starving man seeking food or a thirsty one crawling across the desert for water. It was almost physical, holding a pen in my hand and opening a blank card, my mind looking for words to describe a kindness. Thankfulness was the one thing that would keep the black domino from sucking me up and absorbing me. Thankfulness expressed in very specific terms.

I could hear myself as I wrote. I could feel stirrings of faith even if I was writing nothing about my faith because I was participating again in the goodness of the world. Sitting on the side of my bed and writing was my therapy.”

In just a few weeks Hamlin wrote 75 thank you notes. Thanking people for gifts, food delivery, visits, and more. It brought him back to himself; it kept him from falling into despair.

He goes on to say, “Be thankful in all things. Write them down. Even if you don’t feel grateful, even if you can’t pray. What you write will be your prayer. Feelings you can’t force, faith is not something you can necessarily talk yourself into, but thankfulness you can. All it takes is a pen or a pencil and a scrap of paper. You can write to yourself, you can write to a friend, you can write to God. Put your gratitude down, even at the worst of times. Especially then. What you say will lift you back up.”

Be thankful in all things. A beautiful thought heading into Thanksgiving. Wishing everyone a peaceful, gratitude-filled holiday.

 

 

 

 

Written by Michelle O’Brien, Manager of Marketing & Communications

 

 

 

Source: Hamlin, Rick. In All Circumstances, Give Thanks. Guidepost.org