Fall Thanksgiving: Hope and Gratitude

As the earth turns the seasons once again change and I reflect on a line from Stevie Mac's song Landslide. "Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?"

I think so. On the radio one headline read Canadians are burnt out. I turned it off. I don't feel burnt out. Not right now. Maybe at times in the past. I feel older, wiser, bolder. Tired but not burnt out. We still have a lot to be grateful for. 

My daughter was talking about a women who was trying to get through the Darien Gap with her young child to come to Canada. The Darien Gap is very dangerous. It's literally a jungle with wild animals. The woman's young child died on the journey and the mother lost the will to live. She just held onto the child and refused to move. She said just let me die here. 

She did die there and people say you can see the woman still holding on to her dead child. My daughter then asked why would people risk that to come here? Misinformation I said. People think it's some magical solution when it's not. We still have to work harder than ever and make sacrifices. 

Yet many people do risk all that to come here so we should be a little more grateful for what we do have. Gratitude is an important part of happiness. It makes us hopeful and lifts us out of despair. "Where there is no vision, the people will perish." 

Hope is an anchor to the soul. If faith is the moving cause of action within us, hope is the precursor to faith. We hope tomorrow will be a better day. If I didn't have faith that the light would turn on, I wouldn't get out of bed and flip the switch. 

It's still dark out and I can hear eagles. They stop by in the trees as they migrate. My daughter heard them yesterday and we saw them later on in the day. November 15th there are a lot of Eagles in Kilby. December 15th they're in Brackendale. They come to feed on the rotting chum after they spawn.

As life spins faster and faster it's good to slow it down and look at the big picture. Last night as I was picking up my son from the Ferry I threw in an old CD I burned on my computer with an old playlist on it. All of the songs meant a lot to me at the time but circumstances have changed and they no longer hold the same meaning for me they once did. It's time to find a new playlist. 

When I came back from Ireland my father dedicated a song from Finain's Rainbow to me. "Tis a rhyme for your lips And a song for your heart, To sing it whenever The world falls apart."

There have always been songs that have pulled me through the tough times over the years. Now it's not really a tough time for me it's just a keep moving forward time. There's no drama or bitterness. Just a desire to move forward. I'm resistant to change but once I do change, I don't want to go back. 

It's a beautiful sunny day out there today. The gym was packed. You can definitely notice the leaves starting to fall. I'm not really ready for winter yet. I guess that's why we have Fall first. Gives us time to transition.