Often at Thanksgiving we talk about what we are thankful for.
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Over the years this ritual has gotten old, and it seems that many people are more thankful that their turkey turned out not dry instead of the things that are “important.” We take this one day to “be thankful” while all other days out of the year we complain because the whole world is out to get us.
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I’m often just the same.
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My flight from Little Rock to Dallas to catch my connecting flight was leaving late, and I was going to have to rush to the next gate and then get in the last seat, so I was a little annoyed.
The plane began to taxi and then it kicked into high gear as it accelerated to take off. As soon as that happened a little boy about three rows behind me began to say (loud enough for me to hear), ” Wow, oh yeah! We’re going so fast! Wow, woah!” This continued until we were in the air.
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This little gesture of amazement made me smile.
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On a time where Thanksgiving is about giving thanks, I think we need to think about how we value the things around us that we take for granted. We give thanks for the important things in our life, but how often are we truly amazed at something that is so “simple” and “insignificant”.
This boy was truly amazed at the simple action of a plane taking flight, when so many people are frustrated with all the “issues” they had to deal with just to go have a meal with Grandma. I think we need to not only stop and smell the roses, but be amazed by how lucky and wonderful life really is.
In all honesty, the entire plane should be screaming (for joy) at the top of their lungs, because of the magnitude of how amazing what they are actually doing is. You’re sitting in an aluminum cylinder flying at over 100 miles per hour 50,000 feet in the air. That sounds pretty amazing to me.
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You only have a single moment, and then that moment is gone.
How you choose to be in the moment is how that moment is defined.
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I choose to be thankful for everything I have been blessed with in my life, but I also choose to be amazed. In this moment, and the next I will live in gratitude and fervor for how lucky I am to be alive and how amazing everything truly is.
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I hope you will join me.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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-NL
[...] November, it’s notorious for being the month of a few things. It’s end of the regular season of college football, pumpkin lattes turn into peppermint mochas, No Shave November (or more recently introduced Movember), colder temperatures and earlier sunsets but most of all Thanksgiving. [...]