Happy Thanksgiving: Let's Resolve to be Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving:  Let’s Resolve to be Thankful

This morning, Zora, my 7 year old asked me if Thanksgiving was the holiday that we made promises to do things for the entire year that we didn’t do quite right the year before or we wanted to do better.  She couldn’t remember the word for it, but she knew it started with an “R” and not a “T”, so she was a little perplexed. I told her that I thought she was confusing New Year’s Resolutions with Thanksgiving and she said “Oh yes, resolutions are the things we have pinned to the bulletin board.”  She then proceeded to ask if we could read our resolutions on Thanksgiving Day, so we could make sure we completed them before the end of the year. 
I thought “Wow! Where does this child come up with this stuff” then I actually responded with “No dear.  On Thanksgiving we go around the prayer circle and say one thing we are thankful for.  We can look back at the New Year’s resolutions on New Year’s Eve. They have nothing to do with Thanksgiving.”  After several moments of Zora looking at me with sheer disappointment and me looking at her with amazement, I told her to go get the resolutions off the bulletin board, so we could see how well we had done keeping the resolutions we made on January 1st.  She gladly bounced over to the board, shuffled through all the other important papers that were covering them up and pulled them down.

Last year, we each resolved to do quite a few things based on the notion that it was a new year and we wanted it to be great.  I won’t say how well we did with our resolutions, other than I think Zora did the best in keeping with hers, but I will say that this conversation moved me to blog. 

This year I think we should make our New Year’s resolutions on Thanksgiving.  And that we should resolve to be thankful.  Thankful for all of the love, joy, adventure, life lessons, friends, hurt, pain, fortitude, and life that we have been afforded throughout the year.  We should resolve to hold the spirit of Thanksgiving throughout the entire year and not just on the one day that families traditionally get together.  We should resolve to not only give thanks on Thanksgiving, but to give of ourselves and to give to those in need.

It amazes me how my 7 year old is helping our family craft new traditions by sharing her ideas of how the world should work based on her desire for joy and happiness.  Zora’s mantra is we should be happy all day and every day and she is right.  We should be happy, but if we can’t be happy, I pray that we can at least be thankful.  I am so thankful for being able to share little moments like this in hopes that the joy my children bring to me is spread to others for the joy that children bring is too great not to share.

Carladenise
Zora’s MOMager