When you look over this year’s experiences this Thanksgiving and remember the joy and the pain … those who loved you and those who wounded you and still might possibly do so, and those who healed you and still might be doing so, along with those who gave you hope and those who picked you up and those who let you down, those who kept promises and those who broke promises, and those who make you laugh, who comfort you … when you see those human faces … joyous, angry, sad, bitter, broken, happy, hopeful, lost … the young, the strong, the old, the weak … remember the lessons you need to learn from all of it and keeps these words of Mother Theresa in your heart:
“There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives – the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find love for them.
Before you gather with friends and family, pause for a moment, be thankful for everyone who has been a part of your life experience, for each makes you who you are … and then go forward in love.
From Mother Teresa:
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self- centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of having selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do it anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It never was between you and them . . . anyway.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving.
