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We do not remember days ... we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
Abundant Hearts
Lloyd D. Newell

At this season of autumn and harvest, we count our many blessings and give thanks.

Our thoughts turn to a thanksgiving and harvest festival celebrated four centuries ago by Pilgrims and Native Americans.

You're familiar with the story: The Pilgrims, new to this land, had survived their first winter in the New World; they had worked hard building homes and cultivating crops; and they were at peace with their Native American neighbors.  The harvest festival would be a time of thanksgiving shared by the colonists and the Native Americans who had helped them survive.  Had the Pilgrims been more self-centered, they might not have celebrated a day of thanks.  Or they might have forgotten the generosity of the Native Americans and not invited them to the festival; they might have hoarded their harvest and closed their hearts.  Instead, with open and thankful hearts they welcomed their neighbors to their tables of plenty.

This model of fellowship can inspire us today.  A truly grateful heart is an abundant heart that breaks down walls of estrangement, builds bridges of understanding, and opens doors of friendship.  At times it may seem easier to turn inward, to keep others at a distance, to withhold our time, our means, and our hearts from others.  But that can lead to unhappiness, to animosity, to smallness of heart.

When we feel grateful, our hearts overflow with good feelings for others.  Rabbi Harold S. Kushner writes of a man whose small plane crash-landed but who was fortunate enough to escape before it burst into flames.  A reporter asked him what was going through his mind as the plane neared the ground.  His answer revealed the abundance of his heart: “I realized I hadn't thanked enough people in my life." [1]

Before another opportunity passes, let's open our hearts to others, count our blessings, and give thanks.


[1]  In The Lord Is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-Third Psalm (2003), 154–55.


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Copyright © 2006, Jace Carlton.  All International Rights Reserved.


Copyright © 2005-2013, Jace Carlton.  All International Rights Reserved.