Getting serious about gratitude
This day provides a welcome opportunity for us to reflect on what we have to be thankful for.
inter Lake Editorial
This day provides a welcome opportunity for us to reflect on what we have to be thankful for.
It is easy to rattle off a stock list of things we appreciate, usually beginning with family and friends and good health - if we are lucky enough to have them. Freedom and faith are on many people's lists, too.
But enumerating what we are thankful for is often done without fully engaging the frontal gratefulness lobe of our brains, if there is such a thing (and there should be). Sometimes, it just feels like lip service when we talk about our gratitude. Some would argue that a state of thankfulness is a lost social grace on par with the lost art of letter writing in a time when a sense of entitlement far outweighs a sense of thanks.
The truth is, some people in the Flathead are so busy just trying to get by that stopping long enough to take stock feels a little disorienting. It's hard to be grateful for the door when you know a wolf is always behind it.
When times are hard, it takes a little creativity to count blessings with any sincerity. The nice thing about that exercise is that it usually creates its own momentum. A jump start can help.
So think about Lin and Kathy Akey's holiday this year in Whitefish with their son, Pete, safely home from Iraq. You don't have to personally know a member of the military, even though most of us do, to feel vicarious gratitude for those who have made it safely home.
Think about Diedre Jefferson and her 3-year-old son and new husband, displaced by Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans and relocated to the friendly refuge of Libby, where the community opened its arms to its newest residents. You don't have to know someone whose life was uprooted by the hurricane to appreciate the heart it takes to start over and the generosity of strangers who help.
It takes a positive twist to find gratitude for things such as war and disaster. It's in perception and the willingness to consider that the turkey is not half-empty, but half-stuffed. It takes practice to appreciate life the way we find it - whether it's because there is no snow to shovel or because there is new snow to play in or because there is so much snow that school is closed for the day.
Gratitude for the circumstances of our own lives - even the tough ones - can make us feel good, even if it's only fleeting. So try it. Flex your gratitude today. Express it right out loud if you can and see if recognizing one blessing doesn't lead to another. And then pass it on.
Happy Thanksgiving, Flathead Valley.
Alarms
Columbia Falls Fire Department went to Woodland Drive for a chimney fire.
Whitefish ambulance, Kalispell Fire Department, and Highway Patrol went to an accident on U.S. 93 near Majestic Valley Arena, where a vehicle reportedly flipped about six times, sending people to the hospital.