For All the Times I Forgot to Say ‘Thank You’

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
Psalm 28

Sometimes not often enough
We reflect upon the good things
And those thoughts always center around those we love
And I think about those people who mean so much to me
And for so many years have made me so very happy
… And I count the times I have forgotten to say “Thank you”
“Sometimes,” Carpenters

In my previous career in radio, it wasn’t unusual for me to begin producing and voicing commercials for Christmas in October. That stated, one “rule” the pop music oriented stations I worked at would “follow” was: no holiday music until the day after Thanksgiving. I never met the person who wrote the “rule”, but it made sense to me. We as a community took time to give thanks for all we had before launching into Jingle Bells”.

Maybe it’s the aftermath of COVD lockdowns and behaviors, or maybe it’s all the talk about the supply chain, but the holiday ads AND the holiday music is front and center.

The trend hit home for me when I recently heard a local radio talk host ask, “Are we ignoring Thanksgiving this year?”

Are we? Is the concept of taking time out to give an accounting of all we have and giving thanks to God for our blessing now extraneous?

Can we just take this time to give thanks to the Lord for all we have, our many blessings (even when those blessings are sometimes not obvious in times of personal struggle)?

Karen and Richard Carpenter featured the tune, “Sometimes” on an album in 1971. The music is by Henry Mancini, with lyrics by his daughter Felice.

So much is expressed in under three minutes. Eloquent words of thanks.

Lord, thank you for all you have bestowed on me, my family, my Benedictine community.