Happy Thanksgiving

My mom painted this. There are two tiny figures standing out on the pier. That's me and my dad when I was a little girl. For some reason it's always reminded me of Thanksgiving.

I've been thinking a lot about thankfulness lately. We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Our jobs were kept safe. Baby Jane is healthy. The book sold.

It made me think about the whole concept of thankfulness. I used to believe that being thankful was something that happened as a result of good things. Raise = thankful. Birth = thankful. Money = thankful. Vacation = thankful.

But then I thought back. Back to the last couple of years. I thought about 2008. I spent that year watching Angela get sicker. She died that December. I thought about 2009. I went to a grief counselor. I woke up in the middle of the night, dreaming about Ang. Some dreams were good. Some were not. They were flashbacks to hospice and beeping hospital monitors. Those dreams woke me up in the middle of the night, sweating, unable to go back to sleep.

It was hard, sometimes impossible, to be thankful during those years.

There is a lovely couple at our church, Pat & Lynn Wright. While talking to me about her husband's cancer treatment, she reached out to touch my arm.

"Liz, God is good all the time."

A huge lump formed in my throat when she said it and I swollowed furiously, trying not to cry in public. There they were, facing cancer. And yet, she smiled. She encouraged me. They had peace. Because God is good. I was humbled.

I used to believe that happy, optimistic people were just in denial. That they weren't as realistic as the rest of us. But not anymore. Optimists just make better choices. They choose to believe God is good. They choose to believe their lives are good. And maybe "optimist" is the wrong label. Maybe the right label should simply be "thankful."

I realized then, and have more and more as time goes on, that God really is good, regardless of whether we are being showered with physical fortune or not. He was good in 1984 when mom painted this painting. He was good in 2008 when I was crying. He was good in 2009 when I was recovering. He is good now. Thankfulness doesn't have to be accompanied by blessings or gifts. Thankfulness is a state of mind. It is a choice. A place where you can stand and smile and say "God is good all the time" regardless of your circumstances. The Wrights taught me that. Writing the book taught me that. Angela taught me that. God taught me that.

So Happy Thanksgiving.

May you be blessed in your soul no matter what is happening this year.

Because God truly is good all the time.