When the thanksgiving feels half-hearted, speak these words over your space

monday on my mindset

You’re sitting down around a small table stuffed with food.

There’s a kind of chaotic peace in the air as friends and family talk and catch up. Maybe the echoes of the Macy Day Parade in the background or the late afternoon football game.

You’re supposed to feel grateful right? We have so much.

“Let’s all go around and share something we’re thankful for!” There’s always that one person who suggests the task.

As the question is passed from one person to another, the answers range from simple and basic to deep and personal.

It’s easy to feel grateful when abundance is near. It’s also easy to provide surface level answers – the ones that we all know we are supposed to say.

But what do you do when the buzz fades, and you’re all alone. When the doubts and fears start creeping in? When you get that call that a loved one is sick? Or you’re trying to move and find the expenses burying you alive?

How do you conjure gratitude when you walk into your home and feel chaos? Or your kids just can’t stop fighting?

Where is gratitude in those moments?

The kind that digs deep into your soul and produces a well that carries you through when everything else runs dry?

For so long, I looked for it around me. But it wasn’t until my heart experienced deep, ripping-in-half grief that I learned a very important lesson.

Gratitude is not conjured. It’s practiced.

Gratitude is words you speak, over and over again, until your heart and mind begin to agree.

So as Thanksgiving approaches, I leave you with three prayers of gratitude that you can speak over your space. Words that have been faithful to me even in moments when feelings were elusive.