A week full of Thankful Thursdays! 

One of the things I enjoy doing every week is playing Thankful Thursday*, in which every Thursday, folks share three specific things for which they're thankful. Since in the U.S. we're celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday, I thought it'd be fun to stretch it out to a week full of Thankful Thursdays! Hope you'll play along!

Thankful (Thurs)DAY #1

Today, the 3 things I'm thankful for are:

1) Our bishops. All of them. Whether they're good or bad or piddling, the fact remains: They were consecrated specifically for our benefit. So, instead of grumbling or complaining about them, let's instead give thanks for our shepherds and keep them in our daily prayers.

2) The goodness in every person.** Yes, there are folks suffering from psychopathy and misanthropy. That's not my point. I'm talking here about your average, not-severely-mentally-ill person. I love how people generally want to do the right thing and help others and the world around them. We may disagree about the best ways in which to do that and may even be at loggerheads, but still -- the motivations are to do good. And those motivations take such an amazing array of forms! Folks have organized to foster access to clean, safe water worldwide, promote humane coexistence with critters, and help traumatized children through the power of play. And of course, the myriad of pro-life groups that work to protect the dignity of all human life, from fertilization to natural death.

3) Farmers. Without them, we'd have severely, way-the-heck limited eats. This is not to ignore the problems of agribusiness, GMOs, and pesticides. This is simply being grateful that folks are out there growing food for us to eat.

Your turn! What 3 things are you thankful for today? Feel free to be as concise or as verbose as you like!

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* I do this in Google+, and send out tweets that point folks to those G+ posts.

** "Mindful that they are bearers of peace which must be built up unceasingly, [Secular Franciscans] should seek out ways of unity and fraternal harmony through dialogue, trusting in the presence of the divine seed in everyone and in the transforming power of love and pardon." (Article 19, Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order)

Labels: gratitude, reflections, thankful thursday, thankfulness

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posted by Lisa, ofs | Permalink