Happy Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American family and friends both at home and abroad.

For us, it was our first Thanksgiving living in a country that doesn’t celebrate the holiday.  As a result, yesterday was a normal day for us here in Switzerland.

It was a school day for my boys.  It was a work day for my wife Amy.  And it was a grocery store and laundry day for me.

It was a Thursday.

There were no high school football games to attend.  There were no parade’s to watch.  There was not an all-day eating and drinking binge.  And there will be no leftovers for today.  There was no physical time spent with extended family, only FaceTime.

For it was a Thursday.

All of the traditional things we associate with the Thanksgiving Holiday were not experienced.  (Although we did attend a great dinner last night with a lot of Amy’s co-workers and fellow Expats at a restaurant in Bern which televised American Football…the Eagles were on, we need not say anymore.)

One thing I am trying to concentrate on as we experience all of these new adventures together as a family is to approach each day with no expectations or assumptions.  So with that being said, I approached yesterday trying to be open to what it was, and not make it something I wanted it to be.  I tried to approach yesterday from a place of what was true, in reality, and stay away from manipulating things to fit a fantasy.

Yesterday was a Thursday.

But a “Happy Thursday” full of gratefulness.

What struck me most was that because the traditional activities of Thanksgiving were not available to us, the most basic and mundane activities were.  Because there were no places to go and things to do, I was offered a reminder of the great gifts that I take for granted every day.

Although we really did miss our traditional Thanksgiving with our extended families, yesterday reminded me that the act of being “thankful” is offered to me every day, and not just regulated to a holiday.  For being thankful is truly a way of being, which gives birth to joy.

It is realizing that nothing is owed to me, therefore everything is a gift.  Every breath is a gift.  Every day is a gift.  And most of all, my faith in a Loving God who created me is the greatest of gifts.  And it is from this context that the list of things we are grateful for is endless.  Even a normal Thursday.

Last evening at the restaurant, an American friend of ours responded to our greeting of Happy Thanksgiving with “Happy Thursday”.

Yes, it truly was a Happy Thursday…full of Thanksgiving.

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

― G.K. Chesterton