Turkey Day 2021: A Feast of Gratitude
The turkey was cooked to absolute perfection. Producing a savory burst of all the most robust holiday flavors, including fond memories, embracing warmth and pure joy. The stuffing echoed that flavor sensation, as did the array of traditional sides. But what truly made the meal so joyfully flavorful was the company with whom everything was shared. In our case, it was the company of men. Sober men. Happy men. Men of content. All gladdened to share in this absolute Feast of Gratitude.
Yes, Thanksgiving is a dynamite time to remind ourselves to be grateful. It’s also a dynamite time to remind ourselves just why we’re grateful. But the best of all possible Thanksgivings are those when you’re too busy enjoying yourself to even stop and consider just how grateful you are. Because it’s those kinds of Thanksgivings that truly represent the occasion.
That’s how Healing Properties celebrated Turkey Day 2021 — too happy even to realize the great extent of our gratitude. Indeed that’s just how grateful we all were. It’s also how grateful we all remain. And we’d very much like to mark this Feast of Gratitude by sharing some of the best reasons to be thankful.
Read on!
Count Your Blessings
People who work a good program are certainly familiar with this age old adage. After all, it’s not only basically an AA tenet, but it’s pretty much the veritable key to sobriety. Syndicated columnist Harriette Cole counts her blessings in the style and the manner of her Mom. Considering Mom’s now 92, the style and manner definitely seem to be working!
For my Mom Doris Cole, shares daughter Harriette, “the practice of counting your blessings is literal. Especially when times are tough and emotions are tender… “Pause and look at the whole picture,” insists Mama. “When we are upset, agitated, disappointed or sad — ‘Stop. [And] count your blessings.'”
That means being grateful for waking up in the morning, having a place to lay our heads at night and the food that we eat, as well as the family we love so dearly and the friends who so faithfully support us.
Mama says “make a gratitude list.” Moreover, make that list as exhaustive as possible. It’ll help you get grounded in the goodness that fills your life. And when you’re feeling down and out and sorry for yourself, grab that list. It’ll snap you right back into gratitude.
From Mama’s vantage point, writes Cole, it’s all a matter of perspective. People experience strife, disappointment, sorrow, tragedy and sadness. But they also experience joy, delight, wonder, happiness, excitement and love…. See both. But choose the latter whenever you can.
And yes, it really is all a matter of choice. How we think, what we say and what we do is for us each to decide. And what we decide determines the course of our lives. So please, decide wisely.
More Than a Feeling
More than a feeling is more than the title of a Boston song; it also defines true gratitude. So believes USA Today Opinion Columnist Kristin Clark Taylor anyway. And we’re right there with her. We also agree with the fact that “if you’re grateful for everything – always – you don’t leave anything out.”
But it’s not enough to simply say the words (or in Taylor’s case, write them). No, you’ve got to put the words into motion. “Get up from the keyboard, walk away from the desk,” she writes, “and purposefully practice gratitude.”
“The collective act of giving thanks must be bold and audacious,” insists Taylor. “Loud and raucous and bright.” Here again, we wholeheartedly agree. We also agree with the fact that everyone shines much brighter when their illumination is seconded by the light of another.
So go ahead. Turn up your glow. Bask in the light of sheer gratitude. It could very well be the brightest light if your life.
Feast of Gratitude
Healing Properties wholeheartedly thanks columnists Harriette Cole and Kristin Clark Taylor, as well as, respectively, The Mercury News and USA Today. The writers (and their kin) have some inspiring ideas about gratitude. More importantly, they both seem to be big and practicing fans of the form. And we’re grateful to be able to share their inspiring ideas with the world.
We’d also like to thank all the Healing Properties Alumni, now and to come. Many a Feast of Gratitude has been shared in our courtyard. Just about 20 year’s-worth in fact. And we’ll be grateful for as long as we’re blessed to live. We’ll also be grateful for the great, good company of this extended family of sober men. Grateful to have met them then; grateful to meet them now; and grateful to be able to know them still.
We’re especially grateful for the gratitude everyone displays, while they’re here on property, when they;re out and about, and when they’re back home living their best lives. Then again, that gratitude is helping them remain sober. It also feels terrific. Since it makes others feel terrific too, what’s to lose?
Absolutely, positively nothing. That’s what. How ’bout you? Are you tired of losing? Ready to live a life of sheer gratitude? It’s possible you know. Absolutely, positively possible. In fact, give us a ring and we’ll get you sorted right quick. Whaddya say? Isn’t your life worth punching in 10 digits and making a wise move? Of course it is.
(Image: Healing Properties Alumni & Residents)
