Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect.

Today, I’m reflecting on Gratitude, humility, empathy, and boundaries.

Gratitude, because there’s never a bad time to count your blessings.

Humility, because many of us were raised on a pretty skewed narrative of the history that underlies this day.

Empathy, because we often gather with people whose worldviews are radically different from ours.

Boundaries, because gathering with our families often highlights the areas in which we still need to grow.

Today, I am grateful for family and community. I am grateful for new beginnings and timely endings, for things I can joyfully retain, and things I can lovingly release. I am grateful for the opportunity to honor old traditions and start new ones.

Today, I am grateful that I neither need to perpetuate, nor deny, nor live in condemnation for generational errors and historical crimes. I can shine the light on them, repent of the unfair advantages they afford me, and advocate for a fairer society. I can choose to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with my God.

Today, I am grateful for the ability to build bridges with people I don’t agree with. I am grateful for the capacity to see the humanity of people whose choices I don’t like, and people who don’t like mine. I pray that God would continue to enlarge my heart towards them. I pray for protection from the worst of their impulses, and the worst of mine, too.

Today, I am grateful for the power of no. I am grateful for all the ways I can become more loving, more effective, and more safe by choosing my priorities. I am grateful for the maturation that comes from the acceptance of responsibility for my choices and behavior, and my refusal to participate in one-sided relationships that require me to shrink.

Many of us struggle with boundaries because we’ve learned to associate limitless giving with love, even if it harms us in the process.

Today I am grateful that I no longer confuse self-harm with generosity.

But I am equally grateful to not confuse hard heartedness with wisdom.

Today I am grateful for growth.

Today, I am grateful for tomorrow.

However you experience this day, blessings to you.

Blessings to us all.

(Photo Credit: Snapwire)