Thanksgiving of
1998 found me on a tour bus headed to Normandy, France. I was
deployed to Germany and had a four day holiday weekend so I was going
to take advantage of it. This was one trip of a long list of trips so while I was excited about the opportunity the experience wasn’t
so new to make me not grumble a little about not having a traditional
Thanksgiving meal.
This wasn’t my
first Thanksgiving away from home since I spent Thanksgiving at Fort
Lee, Virginia doing my advanced training right after joining the
military yet it was my first Thanksgiving out of country and without
the traditional United States holiday fare. We were going to eat,
the food was going to be good and we all know when you want one type
of food nothing else quite satisfies.
Not being a great
history student in school it was a blessing to me that I was able to
see the movie Saving Private Ryan right before going on this
trip. When we got to the beaches at Normandy and I remembered
the scenes of that movie I realized this was no ordinary sight-seeing
trip. When I stood in the Normandy American Cemetery where every
direction I looked all I could see was the crosses that represented
the men who died during the D-Day landings I repented for my
grumbling about missing turkey. The men buried there gave their
lives and their families not only lost their loved ones they were
also left without a place to mourn those loved ones close to their
homes. When I put it into perspective I wasn’t actually
sacrificing during my military tour.
And the people of
Normandy may not celebrate the American Thanksgiving yet I can share
you that they showed their gratitude for what the American people had
done for them daily. They do not take the sacrifice those men made
lightly, and I never will either.
Thankfulness is a
choice. There is always something to grumble about and always
something to be thankful for. Grumbling never lifts my spirits or
improves my day yet the practice of being grateful makes each day
easier to face.
No matter what
challenge I am facing there is always someone dealing with something
much worse. The most heartbroken I have ever been was when one of my
Sunday school students shot and killed himself (may have been an
accident yet it was ruled a suicide). I felt like nothing could be
worse, and I struggled both with guilt and despair. Not quite a year
later two young men killed five people at their school. I realized
as heartbroken as I was that it could actually be worse. It has been
seventeen years since I lost that young man, and I have seen so many
examples of what worse looks like.
I started to write
that no matter what I think I lack there is someone with less yet the
truth is that I don’t think I lack anything. It is not because I
have every single thing that I could think of to want but rather my
habit of being grateful for what I have that allows me to feel the
abundance of my life rather than what is missing. And this pertains
to relationships, health and much more than just money and physical
possessions.
I won’t pretend to be super spiritual and tell you that I am not
looking forward to this year’s Thanksgiving meal. It always will
be one of my favorite days of the year (or several days of the year
depending how many dinners I can crash and how long the leftovers
last). I love that we have a holiday to remind us to be thankful.
And if there is one holiday that I wish would extend throughout the
year it is Thanksgiving. I don’t see any reason we can’t be
thankful Jesus was born on Christmas, thankful we get a fresh start
at New Year’s, thankful we have someone to love on Valentine’s
Day – you get the idea. The practice of thankfulness or gratitude
is life changing and I know that firsthand.
Jolene Staker
lives in Conway, Arkansas with Cowboy (cat that thinks he owns the
place) and a few other furbabies and is pursuing a Master’s Degree
in Professional Counseling from Amridge University. She served in
the military for 17 ½ years before being medically retired. Her
favorite job while in the military was being a photojournalist which
became possible when a unit was going to Germany and needed extra
people so they accepted her college writing experience of being the
managing editor of her small college’s paper as qualification to
go. She was also deployed to Guantanamo Bay Cuba for 18 months where
she did back to back tours, one as a photojournalist and one as a
Chaplain Assistant (although not actually military trained in that
capacity they asked her to stay when they needed extra people because
of her dedication to the chapel programs during her first tour). She
is now exploring all possibilities for how she might use her writing
to glorify God and encourage others in addition to counseling and /or
life coaching opportunities after she completes school and training.
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