So here we are on Thanksgiving evening here in the East. Some of us fortunate enough to have the financial means to gather with family and friends for a large elaborate meal, followed by football or game playing, engaging in conversation, etc. I am grateful to be able to join my sister Ruth and her husband, children, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law for their annual gathering. They have their traditional dishes–some of which are from my side of the family and others from the Lee side. This is my first Thanksgiving at the table with Ruth in nearly 30 years, when we convened at our sister Sandy’s house for dinner one year. Tonight, as with that night so long ago, the blessings of family and abundance are present and I am grateful.
This morning as I was writing in my journal I began to ponder the fragility of life, the wonder of our existence on the planet. “Each human,” I wrote, “probably each being, but humans I know for sure are walking, living, breathing miracles. From the improbability of our conceptions to the division of cells and their differentiation into special cells that become our organs, our skin, muscles, and bones. The marvelous complexity of the brain–the super computer that runs everything else but that is dependent on the heart to keep pumping oxygen to it, which in turn is supplied by the proper functioning of the lungs. Oh yes indeed we are walking, breathing miracles.”
Last week I was talking to one of my sisters about a minor medical malady that I am facing at the moment. I remember saying to her that it’s a wonder we that we humans survive and thrive on this planet. There are so many mysteries, so many things we don’t know about the human body and how it functions, so many diseases, conditions, and illnesses that we can’t explain let a lone cure. There’s way more that we don’t know than we do in so many areas of endeavor, but around health and healing in particular.
“We pretend that we undersand the mysteries of the body, the mysteries of the Universe,” I continued in this morning’s journal, “but even the most brilliant scientist acknowledges that the more we discover about something, the more there is to learn, that it’s a never ending set of rooms–we unlock one door only to step into a room and encounter another.” We unlock one mystery that leads us to another one. This not knowing could be rather disconcerting, particularly in a society that wants to know and control everything. The truth as I see it is that in reality we control very little of what’s happening around us, sometimes even what is happening with our bodies. The best option I can see is to learn to be comfortable with the unknowns and ambiguities of daily life. Being grateful for the miracle of life, the delicate dance of atoms and molecules, cells and DNA, organs and systems and such offers a way to be firmly grounded in the present moment while life unfolds around us.
On this day in which much of the United States turns its attention, even if only momentarily, toward thankfulness and gratitude, I find that I continue to be grateful for the simple and yet profoundly complex dance of life itself. And I am grateful for the blessings of abundance that surround me: plentiful and nutritious food to eat, a warm safe place in which to take shelter, family and friends who love me, a good job that helps me meet my obligations and responsibilities. So many blessings, such deep gratitude. Life is good.
