As we approached Thanksgiving in 2020, we thought that things were bad but maybe stable. We didn’t know that the next twelve months would have more death, more disruption, more relational rancor.

But it has.

And so, I want to go back to the thanksgiving prayer I shared with my coworkers last year. I think it is still helpful for guiding our hearts.

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God-

We need to be honest.

It’s hard to be grateful for all the loss and grief this year. For some of us, this has been the hardest year we’ve ever seen. Thank you that you don’t expect us to be happily grateful for the loss of loved ones.

And yet, thank you that you are with us in that loss.

And there are things that we are grateful for.

Thanks for the remarkable people we work with.

Thanks for all the days we weren’t sure we would make it, and we did.

Thanks for a thousand decisions we needed wisdom for, and found it.

Thanks for thousands of acts and conversations where our patients, our community, our coworkers knew that we cared as we walked away.

Thanks for a thousand moments where we had the courage we needed, the peace that we needed, the rest that we needed.

When we had what we needed.

God,

Thank you for us.

Thank you for you.

Amen.

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Thank you, friends of 300wordsaday, for joining me these mornings here. May you know peace today, and find some good in your day.