P.E. Nyavor
There are days when life feels like a long to-do list. Emails, traffic, deadlines, notifications – you reach the end of the evening and realise you lived most of it on autopilot, just moving from one obligation to the next.
Thanksgiving, to me, is the gentle interruption to that rhythm. It is the decision to pause, to breathe, and to say, “Wait. There is good here too.” Whether you celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday or not, I think of thanksgiving as both a day and a posture – a way of seeing the world.
The Quiet Art of Noticing
Gratitude always begins with noticing, and it usually begins with very small things. It might be the way the morning light slips through your curtains, or the message from someone who remembered you just when you needed it. It might be the first sip of tea or coffee while the house is still silent, or the laughter that erupts over something absolutely silly. None of these moments will trend on social media or make the news, but they are small anchors that hold us steady. Thanksgiving invites us to slow down enough to actually see them instead of stepping over them in a hurry.
Remembering What We Already Have
We live in a culture that is very good at reminding us of what we lack – the job we should have by now, the body we should have, the money we should have saved. Gratitude gently flips that script. Instead of endlessly chasing what is missing, thanksgiving asks a different question: What is already here?
A body that, even if tired, still carries us through our days.
A mind that can learn, unlearn, and start again.
A roof, however modest, that shelters us.
People who love us imperfectly but truly.
A future that is not fully known but is still open.
When we name these things, we are not pretending everything is perfect. We are simply refusing to let the gaps in our lives swallow the gifts in our lives.
The People Around the Table
The classic Thanksgiving image is a long table overflowing with food and people. Real life is often more complicated. Families are scattered across cities and countries. Friendships shift. Some chairs at the table are now painfully empty.
Yet one of the greatest blessings we can count is the gift of our people, however small or unconventional that circle may be. There is the friend who checks in when you go quiet, the colleague who makes work feel less heavy, the child who reminds you that wonder still exists, the parent or grandparent who prays quietly for you when you don’t even know it. Thanksgiving is a good time to say the words we often assume people already know: words like “Thank you for staying,” “Thank you for listening,” and “Thank you for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself.” Sometimes gratitude is not just a feeling; it is a sentence we choose to speak out loud.
When Gratitude Feels Hard
It would be dishonest to pretend that thanksgiving is easy for everyone. Some people walk into this season with grief, illness, financial pressure, or unanswered prayers. For them, gratitude can feel like another burden, another standard they are failing to meet, when life is already heavy.
If that is where you are, you are not less spiritual or less strong. Sometimes the most powerful form of thanksgiving is very small and very honest: “Lord, today was hard. But I’m grateful I made it through this day.” Gratitude does not mean denying our pain. It means recognising that darkness and light can exist in the same story, and that even on the heaviest days there are still tiny shafts of light worth naming.
Making Thanksgiving a Habit
If you want thanksgiving to be more than a single holiday, you can gently weave it into your everyday life. One way is to end each day by calling to mind three specific things from that day that you are grateful for – not vague generalities, but actual details, like an unexpected call from a sibling, the strength to finish a difficult assignment, or the way the sky looked just before sunset.
Another practice is to choose one person each week to thank intentionally. Send a short message, a voice note, or even a handwritten note, and tell them how they have impacted you. You will be surprised how healing it is for both the giver and the receiver.
Finally, from time to time, revisit a memory of something that once felt impossible – a season you cried through, a prayer that seemed unanswered for so long. Look at where you are now. Even if life is not exactly where you dreamed it would be, you will often see growth, resilience, and unexpected grace woven into that journey.
Tiny habits like these slowly retrain the heart to look for goodness instead of only scanning for danger or disappointment.
Closing Thoughts
Thanksgiving, at its core, is not about perfect table settings or impressive meals. It is about remembering that in a world that constantly demands more from us, there is still so much that has already been given to us.
So today, as The PEN writes…, I’m choosing to say: thank you – for the breath in my lungs, the people in my life, the strength for this season, and the lessons wrapped in both joy and struggle.
May we become people who do not wait for one day in the year to be grateful, but who carry thanksgiving quietly in our pockets, pulling it out again and again as we walk through the ordinary days of our lives.
“In everything, give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV)
Happy Thanksgiving!
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