An All-American Holiday

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.

Regardless of our religious persuasion, faith stance, political convictions, ethnicity, racial identity, gender, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status we can all participate.

Thanksgiving is such an easy holiday to share because it is based on a simple premise: no matter how hard our lives have been, are, or will be, we all have reasons to give thanks.

I am reminded of this constantly in the counseling I do. No matter the number of or seriousness of the issues people come to talk about, they all have at least some things for which they are grateful. Sometimes it seems like the folks who are having the roughest times are the ones who are most aware of the things in their lives for which they are thankful.

I have listened to a terminally ill cancer patient talk about how grateful she was that she had another chance to spend some time with family. A homeless man shared with me his gratitude for the shelter down the street that would provide him a bed and a meal. A recently divorced woman expressed her appreciation for the friends who rallied around her. A widow shared with me her thankfulness for the wonderful memories she had of life with the husband she had just lost. A chronically depressed man expressed his gratefulness for the caring of the family, friends, and professionals who had stood by his side for so many years.

Taking time to acknowledge our blessings is good for us as a nation. The circumstances of even the most desperate of us usually pale in comparison to those faced by much of the rest of the world. What passes for normal for us is often considered luxury by many others.

Just as important, however, is the impact of such thankfulness on us as individuals. The research is clear that those of us who regularly look for the positives in our lives not only feel more positive, but actually experience more positives.

It seems that a thankful orientation not only opens us to the potential for seeing more things to be thankful for, but also opens us to more opportunities to create such things. And when we invest ourselves in creating things which we can be grateful for, we feel more in control of our lives and less like victims, which leaves us feeling even more positive.

One of the best examples of this I have come across is the woman I worked with a number of years ago who was diagnosed with cancer. She not only focused on being positive about her potential for recovery, she also continually looked for things for which she could be grateful including the quality of health care available to her and the way her family cared for her. And, because she was so positive, she was able to see an opportunity to help facilitate a second cancer patient support group at the clinic she used, which turned out to be a blessing to other patients as well as to her.

However we acknowledge this Thanksgiving holiday, I suggest that we take a few moments and list for ourselves all those things for which we are grateful. We might do this in private, or perhaps with a group or family with whom we have gathered. Even if our list is not particularly lengthy, we all can benefit from directing our thinking to such blessings. And, perhaps, such an exercise might also open us to how we can create even more opportunities to be thankful in the year to come.

• The Rev. Ken Potts is a pastoral counselor and marriage and family therapist with Samaritan Interfaith Counseling Centers, Naperville and Downers Grove. His book, "Take One A Day," can be ordered at local bookstores or online.