Make Your Holiday Meal Unique and Memoriable

I did something different this Thanksgiving day and it felt good. I did not do anything earth shattering,  such as feed many homeless people, or cook a huge turkey and all the fixings. Instead I had been wondering how to make Thanksgiving unique. How to make this Thanksgiving stand out from the normal holiday family feast.

This year I looked through the refrigerator and cupboards. I looked for foods that have been given by friends and family that have not been eaten yet. I thought making a Thanksgiving meal out of food that was given would add a special meaning to a special day we pick to be thankful.

Well, I don’t know how most people would feel about giving up their Turkey dinner for some odds and end that have been in the freezer or cupboards, but I found this Thanksgiving meal to be more special than the usual feast.

In truth I really enjoyed eating food family and friends had given us. There was not a lot of variety, but there was enough with the addition of side dishes and desert. It felt kind of special eating a meal that others had cared enough to make. I wonder if the Homeless feel this way on holidays when they are served a special meal.

I think what I really felt was gratitude.  Gratitude for others that cared enough to make something for me to eat. Eating this Thanksgiving meal really made this Thanksgiving stand out as being unique.  Maybe you may want to try it when you have your next holiday meal? Check your freezer and cupboards for dishes, jelly’s, and other foods that someone thought enough of you to make and give to you.

Include these items in your next meal and feel the warmth flow into in your heart, radiate throughout your chest, warming you, and making memories that will be there forever.

Share

On Being Truly Grateful

Often when people are feeling grateful, they are feeling grateful for what they have and can afford. People feel grateful because they can put more food on the table, than they know they can eat in one meal. They know if they throw out those leftovers a few days later they knew they were not going to eat anyway, its okay. They made a huge meal because food is plentiful for them.

People are grateful for the home they can afford to live in and where it is located. They are grateful for the vehicle they can afford to drive, and the gas they can afford to put in it. People are grateful they can buy what they want when they want, never having to struggle or wonder where the money comes from.

People are grateful for the clothes they wear, and the Church they go to. People are grateful for their vacations, weekend trips, and nights out on the town. People are grateful for their weekends, but wish they were longer. People are grateful they are educated, and have a good life.

In the sum of all things, this is not gratefulness. It is hollow and shallow behavior we were taught is gratefulness. Think of the last Man or Woman pronouncing their faith to everyone who would listen to them. What those people have is all they will ever have. This type of gratefulness is the empty shell it feels like, and nothing more.

People are not aware this is not gratefulness. This type of behavior is a frequent feeding of one’s ego, and nothing more. I used to be one of those people. It was always pleasant to be at a family get together and have someone say grace that could really get the message out there. They would make everyone at the table feel good about what they have and what they were going to eat. We would be beaming by the time grace was said, and spend the next minutes happily eating and thinking how good our life is.

Deep down inside, for me at least, it always felt a little hollow. What was the point of being grateful for all the things I have every day of my life? Should I be grateful because my house is better, my car newer, or I am better more handsome, prettier or better dressed than another?

We hear of people who have lost everything, more so now days. These stories will be repeated often, as long as the recent flooding and other disasters are deemed newsworthy. Then they will fade away, replaced by newer more exciting news.

For some of those people who have or will lose everything, a very few will come to terms with the real meaning of gratefulness, and what it really means to be grateful. They will learn that being grateful is not an accounting for all the things they had in their lives before they lost it all.

Being Grateful goes well beyond surveying ones kingdom and feeling good  for all the possessions one has, and the great food one is about to eat. True gratefulness is acknowledging with your heart and mind, all that went into what you have, or what you are about to eat.

Pretend for a minute you are about to eat your next meal. Pretend it came from a fast food place. You are about to eat some type of sandwich with chips or French-fries and an icy cold drink. Think about being grateful for that meal. Take a few seconds and think about really being grateful for your meal and what you think it means to you. Have that thought handy? Now take a few minutes and read about what being grateful for your meal is really about.

Think about only one of your french-fries. Nothing too exciting about a french-fry. A piece of potato sliced and diced into a long small square. Flavored and deep fried. Your burger is nothing special either. There are two pieces of bread on the outside, protecting some lettuce, tomato, pickle, and maybe onion sitting on top of a piece of meat. Not too much there either that is really special. Same meal you have eaten probably hundreds of times before.

For that one French-fry to be created, hundreds of years of modification to the potato had to take place. Toxic pesticides and herbicides (unless it is a GMO potato) have been applied at least fourteen times between planting and harvesting. The soil is so toxic in fact nothing lives around the potato plant. Nothing crawls around or on it. The soil is basically as dead as dead soil can be to prevent any insect or microbe from feasting on potato and ruining your future meal. The soil is so toxic where your future French-fry is being grown that no one who cares about their health entered the potato patch on foot without a gas mask on.

It may be a little less severe for the lettuce, tomato, and pickle, but someone dripped their sweat on the parents of the greenery in your hamburger. Someone worked hard, planting, caring, and harvesting, so you could enjoy your burger.

Think about the meat in your burger. That meat came from a live animal. That Animal was born to Parents who were killed and eaten long before the Animal that became your burger was killed and processed. After being born, the Animal you are going to eat was allowed to do little more than eat. Eating food that may have never been intended for that Animal to eat. Eat and receive injections, or force fed by mouth, steroids, antibiotics, and other growth hormones. The Animal never complained. It could not, and it did not know any better.

Just when that Animal’s life was starting to be good, and it was sensing there was more to life than growing bigger, that Animal was taken away from wherever it was living and slaughtered. The Animal you are now eating did not have a choice in whether it lived or died.

No one asked that Animal if it wanted to die so you could eat a sandwich you really don’t care all that much about. If it was lucky it was killed humanely, whatever that is. If something went wrong, it was killed anyway. Every day many people have to do or oversee the killing, cleaning and packaging of that Animal.

The soda you are drinking has flavorings that were collected by someone in some hot or dry climate. The flavorings were mixed with water and sugar, and secret ingredients, bottled and shipped by people who probably do not like what they do for a living. Someone trucks that soda from the plant to where you bought it. The paper and plastic wear you received as part of your meal all came from somewhere. People worked doing jobs they do not like so you could have those things. Finally there are the people who served you.

The process goes on and on, from where you bought your meal, where your body chooses to evacuate it, to the people who take care of the sewer system and reclamation process. This whole process of buying a sandwich is not an exercise in being grateful. Being grateful for having a few dollars to pay for a sandwich is serving ones ego.

The next time you feel like a sandwich, contemplate the Animal and Plants that died for you. Think about the People who perform some very distasteful job so you can eat that sandwich. Think about the lost lives, labor and sweat that went into making everything you own.
How does it make you feel knowing that being able to pay a few dollars for a burger has nothing to do with being grateful? Being grateful in its finest form means thinking about an animals life that was taken, not given. What Farmer put his health at risk, and turned his field into a hazardous waste site for you, and who ached from harvesting the bounty for you. Pondering how many people worked hard at a job they do not like doing so you can have a meal.

Thinking about these things and being thankful for all of it before you take your first bite is what being grateful is really all about. Being grateful for the food you are about to eat, and thinking about the process to make it happen, so you can eat, is what being grateful is all about.

Share

Thank You Around the World 2010

I want to thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you find what you are looking for and what you read helps make your life better.

If you came only browsing, I hope you found something worth your time. I hope in the next year, you are still here, and still finding something worth your time,

Here are two lists of where readers of this blog are logging in from. If where you live is not listed, let me know and I will add your country too!

Thank you, and my best for your New Year!

Share

Learning How To Be Grateful

Being grateful is a state of mind and a learned habit. Some people of course are naturally grateful, though the rest of us have to learn how. Once you teach yourself to see the magic in the world, and learn to appreciate what you observe you are well on your way to living a grateful happy life.

I was not raised to be a grateful person. Gratefulness was only mentioned in negatives. “Eat that food, do you know how many children are starving around the world?” “Do you know how long I worked for that?” “Do you know what I had to sacrifice for you…” That was my introduction to being grateful. How can anyone learn how to be grateful for being alive when gratefulness is wrapped in negativity.

Like anyone else I enjoyed some things in my life. For the most part enjoying something in my life was more of an observation, and not any realization of how special those things were in my life. Until they were gone, of course. Then the full weight of how special something was in my life weighed on me. The death of a family member, a pet, or a friend moving away. Only after the fact did I realize how important those people and animals were in my life.

grateful1Growing up, I saw sunsets, sunrises, thunderheads, snow storms, mountains, and misty lakes in the early morning. All sights that make anyone think how lucky they are to be alive and be present in the moment. But being grateful was not part of my feelings. After all the mountains did not move, the sun rose every day, and snow fell every winter.

It was not until much later I heard someone say something that showed me there was more to life than observing what was important in my life. It was not directly related to being grateful, but started me down the path. I was fortunate to be introduced to a unique person. He was always happy, and he had a magic about him. He was Mason, but I know that was not it, because I knew other Masons and they were not like him.

I overheard him one day after relating a frustrating experience when trying to make a deal on a few cars he was trying to sell. The deal had gone sour, and rather than being bitter or frustrated, after telling the story, he smiled and said, “I sure like people”. Like people, I thought, some guy just took away your income for the month, and you say, “I like people”?

I heard him repeat the same phrase, “I like people”, a number of times while I knew him. One day I asked him why he said that all the time. He told me that he had a choice when things did not go right. He could be bitter and feel like he was not getting his fair share, or he could be grateful for the opportunity to have the experience and learn from it. He said he chose to appreciate the experience and learn from it.

I thought about what he was saying, and decided if he was so happy with his life, and he could be grateful even when plans went awry, there must be something to it. I started to think of one thing each day I was grateful for. At first it was hard to think of anything, as my world seemed so dull. Over time I learned how to be grateful, and allowed gratefulness into my life.

Here was my day of gratefulness thoughts from yesterday. Alarm goes off at 05:00. Not already, I am tired, maybe I should call in sick. My bed is nice and warm. My bed is nice and warm because I have a job that pays me enough to afford a place to live and heat. It’s freezing out here in my truck. At least I am alive and able to feel the cold. Every work day, a cook is in the cafe to make my breakfast. I sure am lucky to be able to afford to eat a hot meal for lunch. It’s late, I am tired, and I want to go home. I am fortunate to have a job I can get tired at.

And so it goes. As you can tell I am not a shining beacon of gratefulness, but I am getting better at it. As you allow yourself to change what and how you think, being grateful becomes easier, and life’s magic shows itself more often. One more short thought for gratefulness. I am grateful you took time to read this when there are other things you could be doing instead!

Share

Thank You Around The World

serviceThis blog has helped make me feel like a citizen of the world in many ways. Having people visiting from all over the world is something that fills me with awe. I read a number of blogs and I normally do not spend a lot of time wondering where the blog originates. Maybe I would be surprised if I knew where some of the blogs I read are from.

This list may not describe where you are exactly, but it is as precise as the company that I pay to host my blog chooses to be. If you are not from one of the places listed, drop me an email of where you are, and I will either edit this post with your country, or place it as a comment.

This is my big thank you no matter where you live, taking the time to read what I write, and learning what I enjoy and think. Thank you for returning too.

In the order my web host lists visitors:

US Commercial (.com), Network (.net), Unresolved/unknown, US Educational (.edu), Turkey, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Old Style Arpanet (arpa), Canada, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Russian Federation, Australia, India, Ukraine, Mexico, Singapore, Finland, New Zealand (Aotearoa), US Military, Hungary, Lithuania, Seychelles.

This is quite a list! I am always surprised with how many people know English as a second language. There are so many of you who are way ahead of my language learning ability. I have a tough time with English as a first language, speak Spanish like a two year old on a bad hair day, and can carry on very simple written conversations in one or two languages from Europe.

Beyond that, I do not seem to have an ear for languages other than listening to the music in them. For musical Languages, Farsi is the prettiest language I have heard. No idea what is said, but the way the language flows is pretty.

I know like me, your time is important, so once again I want to say thank you for stopping by, and thank you for hanging around. I write what I write because I went a long time fighting with my life, and learned how to be happier.

I hope what I write helps everyone enjoy their life more with less pain in the process. When I think of all the people like you from all over the world reading my blog, I am humbled. My grammar and wording is not all it could be, so I know you are not here to learn good English grammar skills but rather because I offer something that helps you in some way.

For the last time for now, thank you again for taking time to stop by. Blogging my thoughts is one way for me to do some small thing for others. Big thing happen in small steps.

Share

Angels, Shamanism, or Small Miracle

There is an old commercial with a short blurb that has stuck with me. The little blurb was, “I will have my people get in touch with your people”. It is so old I do not remember the commercial, only the phrase.

Last week when I was fishing, I found my truck stuck in the sand. I drove up a sandy trail I should not have tried to drive on, and buried my truck to the frame in sand. Not good for a one wheel drive truck. A thought went through my mind suddenly that some help pushing my truck out of the sand sure would be nice. There were only two big RV’s within sight and I knew they were out on the lake. I was on my own.

Having done this same thing once before I knew two things that sometimes help. The first is the same thing that can be done when stuck in snow. Rocking back and forth between forward and reverse sometimes gets enough momentum that a vehicle can be rocked out of the problem. Not this time.

The second thing that words is jack up each wheel, fill the empty space below the wheel with rock, and hopefully slowly drive out of the problem. I had resigned myself to doing this. I pulled out the jack, and jacked up one rear tire, and was looking for small rocks to fill the space with below the hanging tire.

At that moment a four wheel drive vehicle charges up, and a man with two younger women, perhaps his daughters, jump out. “Need a pull?”, he asks me. “Yes”, I said, and as soon as I had the jack down he had a tow cable in hand.

sandHe pulled me well out of the sand and back on to hard pack. I thanked him profusely of course, and said I wished I had caught some game fish, I would have gladly shared with him. His answer was, “It got me away from the campsite for five minutes”.

I was driving down the highway sometime later, still thinking about what a generous and helpful man he was to appear out of nowhere, and so quickly, almost like he and his girls had nothing better to do but sit by the lake waiting for someone to get stuck in the sand, when a thought occurred to me, maybe it was not coincidence.

I started thinking about possibilities? Was I living an especially good life these days, and I was somehow deserving of such fast and efficient help? Was God paying that close attention to me, and took my thought of help as a desperate prayer, and sent angels down to my rescue? Was it something shamanistic that occurred; was the man suddenly motivated by an overwhelming urge to help a foolish stranger who got himself stuck in the sand?

I do not know, but I have my suspicions. He was there just too quick and I did not notice his vehicle until he was very close, and he was still there after I left. I have had too many experiences to believe all of them are simply coincidence. I am also no longer quick to decide what I had experienced was this or that.

If it was not for the thought that popped into my head, I would have driven home thinking how lucky I was. I would have spent an hour or longer getting myself out of the sand onto hard ground, and with this man’s help, it was less than five minutes.

As I write this I am reminded of an old saying, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth”. I am also reminded that life is not what it seems to be, and is more magical, and more wondrous than we realize, unless we are really paying attention, and are awake. Has reading my story helped you remember any little ‘coincidental’ situations that have happened in your life recently? Maybe your people are busy too?

Share