We’re again headed into a Thanksgiving season I wasn’t sure we’d see, not after living through ten years of a spiraling descent into chaos around us.
Most of us are sickened by the discord in this country that is caused by foreign interference, exacerbated by all so-called national leaders involved (including the boorish, the power-grabbing, the ignorant, and the naïve), and gleefully stirred up by Satan’s other minions at all levels of society.
Massacre still follows massacre, with too many people too often withholding their sympathies due to the presumed lifestyles of the victims. Thanks be to God that others show forth charity toward them instead. Even upon sad reflection, it occurs to me that I (and all of us) can find reasons to be grateful as we limp toward the end of this hate-filled 2019. Three reasons of many are below.
Our Nation is Worth Saving!
First, our nation and our freedoms are worth saving, which means we need to use the immense privilege we have of praying to God on a daily basis for their survival, and then doing something else positive to achieve that. At very least we need to stay aware of what’s going on locally. None should feel comfortable being blindsided by corruption happening right around the corner.
We need to be outside ourselves several times a week, paying attention to what’s happening with civic leaders, other drivers, and shoppers of all ages around us. We need to refrain from character assassination, even though that may be a lost cause in the world of politics. Recent local elections reveal disgusting mud throwing on the part of the candidate who won.
We may not have the health or wealth to contribute in large ways as we did in the past, but we can’t just hide out, supremely comfortable in our Hobbit houses or in our impressive estates. Those of us who are introverts much prefer solitude where we can create beautiful work without the constant drain of dealing with loud, excitable people, but all of us need the social stimulation of our support network on a regular basis.
We also need to recognize where our community and the world are headed. What nefarious adventures are its inhabitants on that are going to impact us, whether we like it or not, whether we’re ready for it or not?
I Have Joined the Ranks of the Retired!
Second, after being forced into retirement like thousands of others my age, I no longer have to deal with a psychopathic chain of command above me. (Making people miserable enough to retire saves the corporation from having to pay the severance package that occasionally accompanies being laid off.)
Soon, the paper-and-glue hierarchy chain will tear apart and the people grasping its flimsiness will tumble to the ground from their high-altitude attitude toward those whose lives they have destroyed. I know that karma will reward their greed about the bottom line and their inhumanity, so I don’t have to worry about that. However, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists quickly recognize them only too well.
In my case, retiring from corporate abuse ended up being the smartest thing I’ve done in a long time, though that doesn’t validate their behaviors. No acceptable excuses exist for the cruelties of the corporate world. However, I now choose what I will write, for whom, and when. This means I use my own family and spiritual values, attempt to retain my integrity, and incorporate my own interpretation of ethics, not someone else’s.
When my heart gets broken into a hundred pieces, it’s because I chose to extend a hand of friendship rather than criticize a lifestyle outside of my own. I would do almost anything to have the pieces stitched back together, anything but withdraw that love. Friends from long ago have commented that I am a shell of my former self, yet the hardships of life will sometimes do that to people. We play the hand we’re dealt, looking always to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ for consolation, help, and direction.
The Ability to Move On
Finding the energy to continue downsizing has been a trip in itself. Even throwing out as few as four or five unused items per day has made a visible impact over the past year, yet now the pace has accelerated considerably. A chore dragged out becomes a heavier burden as the months go by, until we can no longer stand the sight of what has become junk around us.
A former spouse’s packrat accumulations were distributed early on but what remains around me has also outlived its purpose. Perhaps you are looking at the same kinds of decisions from the same emotional viewpoint. Longing for what once or never was, along with fear of the future, can keep us chained far too long. No one is forcing me to stay here, though I do have constraints not of my making. Those, too, will soon lift from my shoulders and I will move forward.
Why on earth do we accumulate so much clutter? Some represents our identity. It is who we have become through decades of life on earth, but since most of us are going toward something much better, why not give the stuff to those who can truly use it? If they can’t take it, we can put what can’t be recycled or what the charities refuse to take, into the landfill, along with the detritus of every human life.
For these and many smaller reasons, there is gratitude all around us, ready for the discovery and the acknowledgment.
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