"I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual."
- Henry David Thoreau
This week, Americans will celebrate a holiday that Bahamians do not officially recognize, except in certain pockets of our community. This celebration dates to the early settlers of New England who fled Europe in search of religious freedoms that they could not enjoy in their countries.
The story is told of how American Indians assisted those courageous pilgrims to the New World and, after the first year's harvest, the settlers gave thanks for the many benefits and blessings they enjoyed, including life, religious freedom and a bountiful harvest which was no small feat in their newly adopted home.
In the spirit of the American Thanksgiving holiday, this week we would like to Consider this... do we pause long enough to give thanks and express our gratitude for the many blessings that we enjoy in The Bahamas?
Giving thanks
As we approach the end of the Atlantic hurricane season, we have much for which to be thankful. Although most of the entire Bahamian archipelago was ravaged by Hurricane Matthew last month, Bahamians have only to look to our brothers to the south in Haiti where more than 1,000 souls were lost to the hurricane. Entire communities were destroyed on that island and many persons are still unaccounted for.
We can also look to our neighbors in the United States where there were reportedly 23 hurricane-related deaths.
Although here in The Bahamas we sustained enormous damage to property, livestock and vegetation, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, not a single life was lost. For that we should truly be thankful.
We should also give thanks that we have long enjoyed a degree of relative peace and civility in our country, including religious and political freedoms, freedom of expression and movement, which do not exist in many countries around the world. We have even agreed, peacefully and consistently, about how we should disagree on matters of national import, from referenda to elections where, if we are dissatisfied with those whom we have entrusted to steer the ship of state, we can and have replaced them with the decisively thunderous quietude of the voting booth.
We are blessed with the ability to traverse the social, educational and economic ladder simply by assiduously applying ourselves to the virtues of hard work, ingenuity and perseverance.
We have been spared the ravages of war, pestilence and famine, a reality that has not escaped many millions of inhabitants of this planet.
We have welcomed a national university, watched as our athletes attained admiration on world stages and seen our diplomats be wise enough to first acknowledge and then begin to prepare for what global warming will bring to small nations such as ours.
Even with such a small population, we have made great inroads in taking care of the most vulnerable in our society, our children, our poor and our elderly. Amidst the great success we strive to achieve in our respective fields, we still remember how family made us strong and wise and we attempt to preserve our traditions.
There are so many blessings for which we should be thankful, and, as we consider them, we should equally express our gratitude for those things for which we are thankful.
Gratitude
Whereas thankfulness can be described as a state of consciousness, gratitude often connotes an act - an acknowledgment for those things for which we are thankful. Gratitude is often accompanied by a positive expression of our thankfulness.
We frequently tell people how grateful we are for acts of kindness that they demonstrate or for the assistance that they render or for the gifts that they bestow upon us.
And surely, each of us has come to recognize the serenity and peace that normally accompanies an expression of gratitude. Indeed, many of us recall our elders admonishing us as children that "ingratitude is a sin". In other words, not only should we be thankful for our blessings and opportunities, we should demonstrate a level of gratitude for them, if only with a simple "thank you"!
Therefore, as we approach the day that Americans have set aside to give thanks for their blessings, and to collectively demonstrate their gratitude in gatherings of families and friends from near and far, let us also take a moment to reflect on things for which we should be thankful. Let us demonstrate that by our expressions of gratitude to those with whom we come into contact this week.
We conclude this week's installment by sharing a poem by Joyce Rupp entitled "Gratitude", hopeful that it will inspire us to be ever thankful and to demonstrate it with a grateful heart:
To be grateful for what is,
instead of underscoring what is not.
To find good amid the unwanted aspects of life,
without denying the presence of the unwanted.
To focus on beauty in the little things of life,
as well as being deliberate about the great beauties
of art, literature, music and nature.
To be present to one's own small space of life,
while stretching to the wide world beyond it.
To find something to laugh about every day,
even when there seems to be nothing to laugh about.
To search for and to see the good in others,
rather than remembering their faults and weaknesses.
To be thankful for each loving deed done by another,
no matter how insignificant it might appear.
To taste life to the fullest,
and not take any part of it for granted.
To seek to forgive others for their wrongdoings,
even immense ones, and to put the past behind.
To find ways to reach out and help the disenfranchised,
while also preserving their dignity and self-worth.
To be as loving and caring as possible,
in a culture that consistently challenges these virtues.
To remember to say or send "thank you"
for whatever comes as a gift from another.
To be at peace
with what cannot be changed.
Happy Thanksgiving!
o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.
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