Kwanzaa is celebrated Dec. 26 through Jan. 2. Martin Luther King’s birthday is Jan. 19. President’s Day is Feb. 16. The Year of the Sheep, on the Chinese calendar, begins Feb. 19.
I don’t personally know anyone who celebrates all of these holidays. But I always hear much about gratitude and rejoicing with family at Thanksgiving and at this time of year, and I have always wished we could keep those sentiments going year-round —on holidays, and on all the other days as well.
Gratitude doesn’t really seem to be a regular focal point in our society. We spend so much time and energy searching for things we don’t have, or fighting to hang on to what we have now. There doesn’t seem to be much time for reflection.
I’m not one to claim much progress on this front. It doesn’t seem to take much to go from a place of gratitude to a miserable, immature zone of bitterness —usually over something that seems quite frivolous later on.
However, one regular goal is to get back to a zone of comfortable balance between contentment and a hunger for self-improvement, and to stay in that zone, or close to it. Most of our growth and development as human beings can only happen when we’ve made a certain amount of peace with our current station in life.
This probably wouldn’t be true if our entire lives were made up of “in the path of a bus” survival moments, but life isn’t segmented that way for most of us. Gratitude is not simply a way of thinking, but also a governing principle for how to act.
We came into this world with nothing, and while we need food, clothing and shelter, we don’t really need much else, and sometimes we act as though the material things and circumstances we didn’t have 15 years or 15 minutes ago are suddenly essential. Even those of us with the most noise or commotion in our lives have at least a few moments to think about larger life choices.
That’s when it helps to manufacture a small amount of gratitude, and begin building on it. Clearly, this is easier for some than others. And, clearly, it’s easier to get grateful when things are going well, and we’re around familiar people, laughing and eating and having a good time.
But what about the months ahead? What about those tedious moments, with a storm raging and drivers raging even more, when we just want to find a restroom, a meal, a shower and a warm, dry bed? How grateful can we remember to act, at those times?
That’s why it’s important to have a gratitude foundation built ahead of time, when things are calm — or at least stable. Good organizational skills are valuable all of the time, but those who plan extremely well seem are often also the ones who can remain calm under fire.
Several combat veterans have pointed to a missing limb — or all or part of a digit — and mentioned that if we wake up with 10 full fingers and 10 complete toes on any given day, we have a reason to be grateful.
It seems like the folks who have lost the most significant things, or never had much to begin with, have an easier time with gratitude than those of us who have many needs and wants covered.
Like New Year’s resolutions, Christmas promises can be gone in a flash. Fortunately, gratitude is something we can pick up again at any time.
Contact Jason W. Brooks at
641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or
jbrooks@newtondailynews.com.