It's Thanksgiving...literally, the day of Thanksgiving and it's been about a month or so that all we hear about is the bird (in regards to the turkey). The bird in the stores, the bird on tv, the bird on front covers of consumer magazines; making us obsess over making the perfect bird, or craving that perfect bird. Bird! Bird! Bird!
In retrospect, that got me thinking about birds in general. There's so much to say about birds; a little bird told me, birds of prey, birds of paradise, giving someone the bird, that's for the birds, the birds and the bees, birds eye view, birds of a feather flock together, early bird catches the worm, and my favorite from the movie - The Notebook - "If you're a bird, I'm a bird."
Speaking of movies, I do a live segment on Los Angeles's KIIS 102.7 fm where we feature a movie, combine it with a life lesson, and allow callers to tell us all about how they relate. It's just a way of getting out a positive message to younger listeners. One of the upcoming movies is the movie Restless by Gus Van Sant. There's this amazing scene about this beautiful songbird who thinks its going to die every sundown and in consequence, wakes up singing this magnificent song because its so grateful to still be alive. Bird lovers across the globe know this bird to sing the most beautiful song of all humming birds or songbirds. Something about this scene really struck a note in me. Gratitude is instilled even in birds, and that's what Thanksgiving is all about. Gratitude, thankfulness for the abundance we have in our lives.
Today, I don't want to be simply thankful for my family, our health, my friends, etc. I'm thankful for the wonderful things that have happened to me, and I'm also thankful for the horrible things that have happened to me, because they have made me the person I am today. I'm grateful for all the doors that have closed because each time, a window with a better opportunity has opened; for uncertainty and trying times, because it has given me fortitude and deliverance of faith; for hard work because it has given me endurance and dedication; for the things that have fallen apart beyond my control, because better ones have come together; for meeting all kinds of people, even bad ones, because that has made me feel lucky to meet the right ones; for every healthy day because it has given me priority and possibility; for the appreciation of art, because it has given me whimsical understanding; for serendipity because it has given me the assurance that there's no such thing as coincidence; for those days when things go wrong, because it has made me ecstatic when they go right.
Its Thursday, literally the day of Thanksgiving, November 25, 2010, and I feel like that songbird every morning when I wake up. Perhaps it's because I'm the luckiest person in the world to be able to say it in my heart, "If you're a bird, I'm a bird."
