November may be my favorite month. I love autumn, with its cooler weather and the fall colors, and I adore Thanksgiving, with its focus on feast and family. I’m one of the few people who decorate the house with Thanksgiving decorations.
I decorate doors, windows, porch, and mantle with colorful leaves and turkeys of every type. I have candles, coffee cups and wine glasses (one that says, “Pairs well with turkey and difficult relatives.”) I also have a huge calendar (I’m talking about 3’x4’) not unlike an Advent calendar, but instead of getting a treat each day before Christmas, I write a note of something I’m thankful for to be put in each day’s pocket. I have a lot for which to be grateful.
But it’s not just this one month that elicits thanksgiving. Every morning for the last six years, I’ve started off the day by writing down three things for which I am thankful. Sometimes I have to really think through the previous 24 hours to find something for which I am grateful, but I do. Gosh, I am so blessed!
Then I heard a story on NPR’s Morning Edition. Eli Sharabi, an Israeli man, survived 491 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza following an attack in 2023. He wrote a book about it called Hostage. Sharabi spoke with NPR’s Leila Fadel about his time in captivity.
SHARABI: You ask permission for anything, to eat, to drink, to breathe, to speak. You’re chained on your legs with an iron chain 24/7. Just a week before my release, they took it off. And in the beginning, it was a little bit still food in Gaza. And the family took care of us, with food for three meals a day. The last six months in the tunnels, we ate one meal a day.
FADEL: At first, Sharabi was held in a home. Then he was moved to tunnels deep underground. It was there he was with other Israeli hostages, young men half his age that were taken from a music festival.
SHARABI: So I explained to them if we want to stay sane, we cannot wake up every morning and cry why we’re not being released. We need to have a routine to wake up in the morning, praying, training, talking a lot every night. I forced them to say at least one thing good that happened to them. And at the beginning, they look at me like I’m insane. And after two or three weeks, it was like a muscle they worked on. And it was amazing for the strength we got from that, that we stay optimistic, that we are fine and we can survive together.1
“It was like a muscle they worked on.”
Our book study group at church, Gleanings, has been reading Lewis Hyde’s The Gift. A couple of weeks after I heard this interview, we worked through the chapter, “The Labor of Gratitude.” Hyde says we are given gifts all the time. He also says, “I would like to speak of gratitude as a labor undertaken by the soul to effect the transformation after a gift has been received.”
Being grateful for one month out of the year is like going to the gym for just January. Can you imagine how much better you’d feel if you continued your workout regimen? I think the same is true about gratitude. Being thankful for what we have can transform the way we think, act, and feel. And, like Eli Sharabi, it may help keep you sane. So I encourage you to work at it every day, not just in November. What was the last blessing for which you specifically thanked God?
1Fadel, Leila (2025, October 7). Held hostage in Gaza for 491 days, an Israeli man recalls how he survived in new book [Radio Broadcast]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/10/07/nx-s1-5492312/held-hostage-in-gaza-for-491-days-an-israeli-man-recalls-how-he-survived-in-new-book
Just had a conversation with a friend about this very thing. You have to Roll out of bed with Gratitude in your heart.
It sure helps the rest of the day if you do!
Thanks for reminding us that we are blessed!
Gratitude is so powerful. Thank you for this great reminder Jackson.
you are so welcome! We ARE blessed.
Isn’t it funny that those with the least, or with nothing, find it so easy to be thankful, while those who have much struggle to find even one thing to be thankful for each day! Thank you, Jackson, for reminding us to work that muscle. And thank you for sharing your musical gifts with Calvary!
I guess those with little to nothing notice even when they get a blessing. Thank God (again) for all God has done for us all.
So well said Jackson. I always include gratitude in my morning prayers and naming many. Usually they are people. Everyday, some new folk from my past pops in and its like a gift each time….. I am always surprised as they could be people from anywhere in my past……. And still so thankful for them to this day. I like that you write them down. I may need to do that.
♥️♥️♥️
This is truly inspiring, Jackson. I will incorporate listing the things I’m grateful for into my morning practice. Thank you so much.
You are so welcome!
I don’t know you as well as I’d like, Jackson, though I am grateful that you’re at Calvary and provide us with such beautiful music. I’m also so grateful that you wrote this very special reflection with an insight into being grateful that I plan to incorporate your daily ritual into my life. I’m most grateful for your inspiration. See where I’m going with this? 😊 Thank you.
I enjoyed working together this past Saturday! Thank you for your kind words.
Well done and so true. Oh, and we decorate for Thanksgiving!
YAY for the Thanksgiving decor! I think I got the last of mine out this morning. And thanks for your kind words.
I find that doing daily affirmations and sharing them by text with a friend each day helps me stay positive. Sharing them and seeing another’s daily affirmations has become a powerful spiritual practice for me, reminding me that I and every unique body is wonderfully made.
That’s lovely! You are lucky to have friends like that!
Grateful 😊
🎶🦃🍂🍁🧡
Thanks be to God!
I am grateful that you shared this with us and that you are a delightful part of our lives.
Thank you, Lynda Gayle. I am the one who is truly blessed!
This is the world. Beautiful(grateful) and terrible things will happen. Do not be afraid.
I am so grateful that you are in my world!!!!!!
And I you, Mary Honey! Grateful for the honest joy you bring to us all!
What they all said – grateful that you are in my life.
why, thank you, Diane! I am so glad we got to know each other in Bristol. That was a blessing!
Thank you Jackson. You have given us a practice to follow – sharing our blessings each day with others. Gratitude shared is contagious! I appreciate your sharing Sharabi’s story and your own daily practice. And I am so glad we had the opportunity to laugh and sing in England this past summer!