Recently in thanksgiving Category

I recently visited my good friend and priest Father J. I don't recall how the subject of washing the dishes came up, but Fr. J made a wise suggestion:

Do them by hand.

Only use the machine for parties.

I have begun to do this in my own life. And you know what? It's awesome! I actually enjoy washing the dishes by hand. I finish washing the dishes and I say, "There must be more dirty dishes somewhere!"

I've been doing my fiance's dishes every night. I even did my roommate's dishes just now. He wasn't even home! (Yeah dude, if you're reading this, that was me.)

I just feel a greater sense of accomplishment when I wash the dishes by hand. Screw machines! I'm about to get married and start my own family. I ought to get used to working with my hands.

Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh actually wrote about the importance of washing the dishes:

While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance this might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that's precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous reality. I'm being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There's no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.

There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first way is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second way is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.

If while we are washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as they were a nuisance, then we are not 'washing the dishes to wash to wash the dishes.' What's more we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes....If we can't washes the dishes, chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either.

In other words, enjoy every moment, no matter how mundane it might seem. Washing the dishes by hand is great practice for this.

Apparently there are some naybobs out there who say washing the dishes by hand wastes water. Pish posh, I say! There are ways to save water when washing dishes by hand, and even among the enviros, the question is not completely settled. Eco-friendly ways of handwashing dishes would consist basically of running the water only when you are rinsing the dish. Simple enough.

At any rate, I have thoroughly enjoyed the new practice and highly recommend it to anyone who hates loading and unloading the machine. Wash, rinse, put away, done!

This makes me smile:

The parents of 11-year-old Nadia Bloom, who was rescued after wandering for four days in and near a Florida swamp, said their daughter is doing "great."

"She's doing great, she really is," said Tanya Bloom, Nadia's mother, at a press conference today. "It's a story you don't usually get. It's a story of hope."

Tanya thanked her daughter's rescuer, James King, but said the words were not enough.

"'Thank you' is not appropriate for what James King did," she said. "We are so fortunate God used him to bring her back to us."

"You know that part at the end of the third 'Star Wars' when all the ewoks are going crazy? That's how it was," Nadia's father, Jeff Bloom, said of the moment they were told Nadia was found alive.

Other than a lot of bug bites, several scratches and some bacteria that's been identified in Nadia's blood, her doctor, Mary Farrell, said Nadia could go home by the end of the week.

Apparently the girl has mild Asperger's, which is a form of autism. And King, the guy who found her, goes to the same church as the Blooms. He said God "directed his path" to find her.

He wasn't the only one listening to the Almighty.

But while they were worrying at home, Tanya Bloom said Nadia claimed to be praying in the swamps, saying, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

That's Proverbs 3:5. When I read that the thing that struck me is, you know, that's probably not the first time this young lady has ever prayed those words. Praying consistently can help a person to face difficult and dangerous situations more prayerfully and peacefully.

Favorite "awwwww" moment from the story:

Tanya Bloom said Nadia's first words to her were, "I'll obey you more, mommy, now."

King said:

God told him to "follow the sunrise" into the heart of a treacherous swamp where the girl awaited rescue on a log.

"He [God] directed my path," volunteer searcher James King told "Good Morning America" today. "When you're in a swamp, there's no good-looking way. He led me directly to her. ... I would be praying and calling out Scriptures and at one point I called out, 'Nadia,' and I heard, 'What?'

"That's a huge swamp," he said. "It was strictly the Lord. There was no mathematical calculations. It was the Holy Spirit directing me to where he knew she was the whole time."

Although she had been wandering lost in the swamp for four days, Nadia was calm and matter-of-fact about her situation, King said, only a little disappointed he didn't have any M&Ms on him.

"I don't know what we talked about. I told her she was very brave," King said. "She did say she only slept about two hours a night ... [and] she'd seen a black snake at some point.

"But God kept her safe," he said.

Rescuers covered in mud and brandishing machetes emerged from a Florida swamp Tuesday, carrying Nadia on a stretcher through dense alligator-infested wilderness.

King, a member of Nadia's church, said the swamp was so dense it took officials about an hour and a half to get to the pair after his 911 call.

Nadia politely jumped in on that emergency phone call.

"Hi, this is Nadia," she said. "I'm the girl that got lost."

Awesome. More on the story here and here.

Let's ask ourselves: How many times in a day do I say the words "thank you," either to another person or to God? How far into the day do I get before that happens?

Do I react to the morning alarm with thankfulness that I am alive and in sufficient good health to get out of bed? If not, perhaps that sets the tone for and colors the way I approach everything else in my day -- traffic, the job, the news, other people, etc.

Being thankful is a challenge because it is sometimes too obvious. There's stuff to be thankful for everywhere. The breath in our lungs, the people we love, the trees breaming green beneath a cloudless sky on a good day, or the rain that cools us off. But our cynical side may encourage us to simply roll our eyes and dismiss it. What's so great about being in sufficient good health to get out of bed? If you're consciously thanking God for that, all that means is you don't have anything particularly great to thank Him for.

On the contrary, if we do not thank God for the smallest of gifts (I would argue that sufficient good health is quite a marvelous gift, but anyway), we will never recognize the great gifts when they are given.

Thankfulness has to begin from the moment of consciousness in the morning. For consciousness is itself a gift. When I experience it, I should thank God for it. When you wake up, say "Thank you, Lord, for ..." You may not even know what for immediately. You may be half awake as it is. That's okay. It will come to you.

Think about the number of people in this world who respond to their alarm clocks by uttering some profanity. "Son of a b--, shut up clock," etc. How would you prefer to wake up in the morning? The sad thing is many people aren't even aware that they have a choice. That's right. A choice.

Anger and cynicism are not involuntary muscle spasms. They are decisions we make at every moment that we grumble and criticize and dismiss. Real happiness and thankfulness are not the products of brainwashing. They are decisions we make every time we allow some little thing, or some great God, to make us smile inwardly, and outwardly.

It's a choice. Between waking up and spouting swear words and waking up immediately saying "Thank you," immediately setting the tone for our whole day.

If you haven't done it before, or if it's been a while, try it, and see what happens.

Thank you for reading. *high five*