Giving Thanks

Without fail, all the dogs find each and every morning the most exciting time: breakfast. The youngest labradors, Poppy and Isla, are fed next to each other. As I put each bowl down, they have learnt to wait as I say “for what you are about to receive may you be truly grateful”. They look at me, I nod and off they go.  

In stark contrast to most of us, they both know exactly what makes them happy – a walk and then food. It is the simple things that make up their lives: the cuddles and tennis balls, giving pressies of some favourite battered toy, the sight of a lead being taken off the shelf and the prospect of a door being opened 

I sometimes think we all complicate matters too much and forget to look at what is there in front of us. That we think the only route to happiness is to have more or to be doing something else. However, if for example, you look at the ‘action’ in Downton Abbey, most of it was the mundane -  watching a character writing  a thank you note, or getting up, or answering a telephone  - “an instrument of torture”, or dining together and yet we were mesmerised. In fact, much of it was about the ordinary, even if the setting, costumes and old cars were not.

Being grateful though is different from looking for happiness. It is too easy to feel deprived because we are not sure if we are happy enough but being grateful is about the here and now. It is associated with words such as grace and  graciousness and is about positive moods or actions.

Traditions throughout the world mark a day in which we give thanks for the harvest, the collection of food and sustenance without which we cannot live. At Highclere we celebrate with a Harvest Festival service. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving Day on the second Monday in October. The Thanksgiving Festival,  ErntedankFest, is a popular  festival in some German municipalities on the first Sunday of October whilst Thanksgiving - Dankdag -  is observed by Protestant churches in the Netherlands on the first Wednesday in November. 

Famously, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, 26 November in 1863 and in 1942,  President Roosevelt issued a proclamation designating the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Giving thanks on these days is all about friends and  food, being in the present but remembering traditions from the past. 

Isla and Poppy, as well as all of Highclere’s other four legged friends, would certainly support such a day, but being wiser than us live every day in this fashion. Most of us live relatively privileged lives compared to conditions in past centuries but it is still the little things which make us smile, the morning walk, the tumbling puppy, the gently moving golden autumn leaves against a blue sky, the smell of freshly baked bread, the laughter of friends chatting together, the sound of a tiny robin thrilling the air waves. Even better is to share these blessings with those we love 

“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens, Brown paper packages tied up with strings. These are a few of my favourite things. Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, Silver white winters that melt into springs …These are a few of my favourite things …simply remember my favourite things .. And then I don't feel so bad”