Thanks-giving

So I was giving some thought to what Thanksgiving means to me, and how I'd like to talk about it in my class tonight on the eve before the long weekend. We have designated one day a year to be grateful for the many blessings most of us are lucky enough to experience everyday. Not that these blessings are necessarily perfect, but I predict that if you had to trade your junk with anyone else, once you saw their junk, you'd rush to take yours back.

There are two parts to Thanksgiving: Thanks and Giving. To be grateful of what we receive, and to give back.  We are so blessed. For most of us we are so blessed that we can't even see how blessed we are because we couldn't even conceive of what it would be like to have anything less than what we have. Most of us have the luxury of a family (a support network). Health (life is very hard without it). A choice of education, and vocations. Wealth (a home, savings, food in your fridge). Freedom, safety, clean water, equality for both sexes. This is all very very fortunate, and most of the world does not have this. We are lucky.

I often hear from students and clients that they lack purpose, that they would like to know what they were supposed to be doing in this world. This of course is usually about work, either the dissatisfaction with their current job or wanting it to be about more. Often, it has something to do with wanting to give back and wanting to make a difference. I started thinking about how much work really impacts our lives. We spend most of our waking time doing it, we (hopefully) are constantly striving to become better, we are often pushed past our perceived boundaries, and perhaps even working towards excellence.

How is work related to Thanksgiving? It got me wondering. What if we worked as hard at life, as we do at work? What if your purpose was to strive for excellence everyday towards seeing the good, and being more kind, generous, and joyous? Or pushing past your boundaries of your perceived limitations? Or striving to make yourself better? Your neighborhood better? Your community better? Your life better? What if your real purpose had nothing at all to do with your job for fulfillment, but the manner in which you do it, and how you impact the people there? If this was your intention, or everyone's intention, how would your life be different? This world be different? What if it was only about how you could give?

I know, I know, it sounds awfully idealistic. But I feel there is a foundation of truth here, and that all of us are capable of living this way. We are capable of it when we step out of our own junk and realize the junk doesn't have to own us.

One of the teachings of the Buddha is that the moon is always full. What this means, is that regardless of the shadows that cross the moon to make it appear to be less than it is, to the moon, it is always full. And so it is with us. Our junk or our stories we've bought into about believing we are undeserving, unworthy or less than we are is not the whole picture and it is not real. They are only a shadow crossing over the perfect, inherently good and whole being that is already there.

So, perhaps this weekend you will spend a few moments counting your many blessings, and in turn, be inspired to give of yourself in some small way. It makes all of us richer.