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A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I hope you all found a moment for peace, reflection and joy in your hearts over this long weekend. This is my favourite holiday of the year, bar none and only for the obvious stated in the name thanksgiving!
I do find many moments throughout each day to be grateful for big and small miracles of Grace; parking spots waiting for me, the sunshine on my face, a smile and hello from a stranger, a loving compliment, the ones I love around me, the opportunity to help someone… For many years I kept gratitude journals and found things to note at the end of everyday.
I taught my students the same practice and reminded them that on days that were particularly difficult or painful, its still possible to be grateful for the breath of life, clean water, a place to call home and other basics of life that we may take for granted especially when times get tough. I find I take less and less for granted nowadays.
The practice of writing a gratitude list at the end of each day has led to an automatic thank you from my heart and sometimes tears in my eyes when Grace comes my way. The real beauty is that Grace comes my way each and every day, no matter what is going on in my life. The thing is that my heart and mind are now attuned to notice all that supports me in my life, in good times or bad.
Thanksgiving is the ultimate holiday for a life lived in gratitude. Mother Nature has supported us throughout the year in a multitude of ways and at this time of the year, in a grand flourish, unloads the bounty of her harvest, beauty in autumn landscapes, gentler weather between summer and winter, and the opportunity to enjoy a gathering of loved ones who are a gift in and of themselves—no retail required!
This Thanksgiving I have been brought to my knees in inexpressible gratitude. My precious daughter, her loving husband and their first child, my incredible grandson, have moved back home to Ottawa from Northern Ireland. They are safe, healthy and a joy I never imagined would be mine. I give thanks for the beautiful home I can share with them, loving family and friends who grace my life and this work I am passionate about and gives my life so much meaning.
Most of all, I am so grateful for the incredible human beings who I am privileged to call my mother and father. Their pioneering spirits, their generous hearts and deeply loving souls have not only left a profound legacy for their daughters, granddaughters and great grandson but also the country and city they made their home in 1967.
They left deep lessons imprinted on my heart and soul about what it means to be human in this world and the first lesson is gratitude and Thanksgiving.
Warms regards,
Nur Ambreen Ihsanullah
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