{"id":1995,"date":"2019-11-19T09:55:32","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T14:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/?p=1995"},"modified":"2019-11-20T14:23:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T19:23:46","slug":"thanksgiving-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/2019\/11\/19\/thanksgiving-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving and President Lincoln"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Schorling<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving will be here again soon. It is a time that promotes pausing to take stock of those things we appreciate and are grateful for.\u00a0 Like many people, I learned the origin story of the pilgrims\u2019 Thanksgiving in grade school.\u00a0 However, I only recently discovered that Thanksgiving was not established as a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln did so in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War.\u00a0 Even in that time of hardship and sacrifice for many, Lincoln believed there were reasons to give thanks,\u00a0 and he also acknowledged \u201call those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of us get together with friends or loved ones to celebrate Thanksgiving, and the focus may be more on food and football than on giving thanks.\u00a0 We might even feel that we have little to be thankful for given our circumstances. Yet the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the middle of the Civil War suggests Lincoln felt this was worthwhile to do despite the ongoing conflict that had affected so many.\u00a0 His example shows that regardless of the difficulties we face we can still intentionally take time to express gratitude, either to ourselves or with others, for what we do have.\u00a0 As Jon Kabat-Zinn has said, \u201cAs long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter how ill or hopeless you may feel\u201d (from Full Catastrophe Living<\/em>). We might also follow Lincoln\u2019s example and use this time as an opportunity to express compassion for those who are suffering, perhaps finding some small way we might be of service to others. Proclamation of Thanksgiving<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This Thanksgiving, I\u2019m grateful for many things, including all the people who choose to participate in the Mindfulness Center programs.\u00a0 It is a joy and a privilege to be able to interact with so many others who are interested in learning more about the simple but not easy practice of \u201cintentional present moment nonjudgmental\u00a0 awareness with kindness\u201d.\u00a0 And I am confident if we all practice kindness and compassion for ourselves and others this Thanksgiving that our efforts can decrease the suffering in the world at least a little.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanksgiving will once again be here soon. It is a time that promotes pausing to take stock of those things we appreciate and are grateful for.\u00a0 Like many people, I learned the origin story of the pilgrims\u2019 Thanksgiving in grade school.\u00a0 However, I only recently discovered that Thanksgiving was not established as a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln did so in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War.\u00a0 Even in that time of hardship and sacrifice for many, Lincoln believed there were reasons to give thanks,\u00a0 and he also acknowledged \u201call those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1202,"featured_media":1997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-musings"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"\nThanksgiving and President Lincoln - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/2019\/11\/19\/thanksgiving-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thanksgiving and President Lincoln - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanksgiving will once again be here soon. It is a time that promotes pausing to take stock of those things we appreciate and are grateful for.\u00a0 Like many people, I learned the origin story of the pilgrims\u2019 Thanksgiving in grade school.\u00a0 However, I only recently discovered that Thanksgiving was not established as a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln did so in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War.\u00a0 Even in that time of hardship and sacrifice for many, Lincoln believed there were reasons to give thanks,\u00a0 and he also acknowledged \u201call those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/2019\/11\/19\/thanksgiving-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-19T14:55:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-20T19:23:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/files\/2019\/11\/Mindfulness-Leaf.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hw8w@virginia.edu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hw8w@virginia.edu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.med.virginia.edu\\\/mindfulness\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/19\\\/thanksgiving-2\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.med.virginia.edu\\\/mindfulness\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/19\\\/thanksgiving-2\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"hw8w@virginia.edu\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.med.virginia.edu\\\/mindfulness\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a376f8732fb91dd01719c9efb88260ab\"},\"headline\":\"Thanksgiving and President Lincoln\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-19T14:55:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-20T19:23:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.med.virginia.edu\\\/mindfulness\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/19\\\/thanksgiving-2\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":382,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.med.virginia.edu\\\/mindfulness\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/19\\\/thanksgiving-2\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.med.virginia.edu\\\/mindfulness\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/Mindfulness-Leaf.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Monthly Musings\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.med.virginia.edu\\\/mindfulness\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/19\\\/thanksgiving-2\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.med.virginia.edu\\\/mindfulness\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/19\\\/thanksgiving-2\\\/\",\"name\":\"Thanksgiving and President Lincoln - 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