The Zen of Thanksgiving

 

According to the cover of The New Yorker, the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday boils down to tolerating your paranoid babbling mother-in-law, your Nazi-biker grandma, the psycho divorcee from next door, a foul-mouthed classmate who’s somehow gotten an invite, your golf-bore uncle, your brother’s klepto wife and your astrologer second cousin with his frigging pet ferret. That’s just tolerating them, let alone thanking them.

That’s Thanksgiving?

Of course, if you were truly enlightened and had Zen-like wisdom, you would realize that even this motley crew has something to pass on to you. If you were Buddha, you would know that they are all your teachers, each doing the right thing to help you learn patience, wisdom and compassion.

But let’s face it, you’re not yet truly and fully enlightened. You’re getting there, but with this motley crew, you’re not there yet.

So let’s make an intermediate step: let’s say thanks to someone who has really made a positive difference in your life. Someone who, against all the odds, had made things happen, is pulling people together, inspiring collaboration and making the world a better place.

Guess what? You can recognize them! You can send them a message that will make them levitate for several days and encourage them to go on changing the world.

This is fun and easy. It means being willing to go with the flow and letting them know that you appreciate them in a genuine way. In so doing, you achieve a true "win-win," as you always get to keep what you give away to others when we appreciate them.

Because the reality is this: the world is the way it is because we have made it that way. And we can change the world, one person at a time, if only we choose to do it.

So do it now. Recognize someone who has made a difference in your life. Do it now, here.

 

Comments

[Barbara Rosholdt]

I recognize you, Steve! I have been struggling and frustrated in the workplace for years and can very well relate to the insights you give. keep it up! Thanks a bunch!