I am grateful for November, the month of conscious thanks. But now November is ending, and with it, unfortunately, the global effort to be grateful. The sky is gray and the tree branches are spindly; Christmas decorations sift through the cracks bit by bit and wishlists grow longer by the minute. This past month will fade quickly just like the ones before it and thankfulness will be forgotten until next November rolls in again. My prayer is to stop wishing for the things I don't have and start being grateful for the things I do. Instead of moaning on the couch about not knowing what to do with my life (this has happened more than once over the past few weeks), I will be grateful I have a future to plan for. Instead of lamenting that so many of my friends live so far away, I will be thankful for the friends that live near me. Instead of complaining that I don't have anything I want to wear, I will give thanks for the clothes that fill my closet. Instead of wishing I had someone else's life, I will be grateful for my own. I will forget and fall back into self-pity, but in the morning I will try again to be grateful for the big, the small, the mundane, the hard, the nights spent crying, and the days spent laughing.
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"You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this: 'Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.' I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.” (Wendell Berry)