Gratitude

I went to the gym today for the Thanksgiving morning workout taught by my daughter.  It’s fun and still slightly odd for my daughter to be my teacher. One exercise required either a medicine ball or a pumpkin.  Very seasonal and cute.  Then, there was this song. She had posted Thanksgiving quotations on the walls.  The funniest one said, “Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants”(Kevin James).  However, it was this quotation from Eckhart Tolle that I liked best:

It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

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“I am thankful for many things. First of all, I am thankful for the world, because without it we would be floating in outer space.”  (Parker Palmer quoting his granddaughter)

 

“My work is loving the world.” (Mary Oliver, quoted by Parker Palmer)  

 

“The only way to keep a gift alive is to pass it along. So on Thanksgiving Day this year — in a world where so many have been deprived of so much — I’ll give thanks by finding more ways to share the abundance I’ve been given.” (Parker Palmer)

Game Face

This is a picture of my dad in his late twenties or early thirties.  I think the men on each side of him are my uncles.  I’ve always remembered this as a happy picture of Dad, but as I studied it for this post, I see he is more serious than I remembered.  It’s one of his card game faces and often there was joy in those faces.

 

When I was teaching, I occasionally brought in a subject related trivia game, and immediately, many students pulled out a different personality—often both competitive and exuberant like my dad in this picture.  Dad loved card games, They brought out enthusiasm and occasionally a little bit of meanness.

 

I’m sure scholars have studied the psychology of competition—its good and bad points.  I’m not up for that right now.  I’m just enjoying memories of Dad and thinking about how this picture explains something vital and necessary about the completive spirit.  It’s obvious that Dad was competing against others.  But maybe, the others were also an aid and motivation for competing against himself.