Be Thankful for Our Abundant Life

The Air Seems Gloomy.

This time of year it is easy to be gloomy and feel down in the dumps.  The fun times of Summer and Fall are over; the days are getting colder, it is feeling more like winter, and there is less sunshine each day because there are few and fewer hours of daylight.

Add to this our feeling that it has been a tough year (circa 2012) with several natural disasters and a toxic presidential election season here in the U.S. it is easy to be grumpy, full of anxiety, and in a state of flux.

Here in Colorado we experienced a tough fire season in June with the Front Range seemingly ablaze from Boulder to Colorado Springs.  On live TV, one Tuesday evening near Colorado Springs, 350 homes just vaporized due to the intense heat and firestorm outside of Colorado Springs.

Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of the tri-state region of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut in late October one week before the presidential election. As a result, close to 60M people were impacted by losing power, cell phone service, Internet access, and running water for many days.

Also, this year (circa 2012) we were in the thick of our presidential election season with an excessively large number of attack ads on TV, continuous mudslinging by candidates, robo calls, and junk mail.  After counting the votes, the country appears to be deeply, although fairly evenly, divided with the popular vote of 59M to re-elect President Obama and 57M voting for Mitt Romney.

And now we have the incumbent members of the Administration and Congress saying the people have voted and they have a mandate.  The dictionary definition of mandate is to win an election convincingly or with a significant majority. A difference of 2 Million votes, out of 116M cast, is less than 2 percent which is hardly a majority or the mandate that is being espoused by many of the incumbents.

This outcome, and the associated mandate rhetoric, adds to the polarization of our country with a belief that consensus seems so difficult and there are ongoing feelings of despair.

Attention is now focusing on the looming financial cliff … which is a term to describe the sudden increase in taxes and decrease in government spending aiming to reduce the size of the national debt. Most economists feel as though the sudden changes would plunge the country into another recession, especially given the fact that the country has been so dependent on fiscal stimulus over the past number of years.

It is being reported that 90% of America’s citizens will be impacted and on average the taxes for each citizen will increase by $3,500 if our legislators do nothing and we fall off the financial cliff.  This situation and all the discussion about the approach to resolve the financial cliff is yet again adding to our feelings of despair, anxiety, and flux.

Yes indeed, the air seems full of doom and gloom.


Our First Thanksgiving celebration!

While these are indeed trying times, and the media loves to talk about how bad things are, as we approach Thanksgiving, I have a few items for us to think about and suggest that we all Be Thankful!

Let me start by providing a brief history of our Thanksgiving celebration and offer a different outlook based on a more abundant perspective.

Here is a brief history of our first Thanksgiving celebration and while reading it, you too will feel it is indeed a time to Be Thankful!

The 1620 voyage from England to America was more than 3,000 miles and beset by autumn storms.

The Pilgrims arrived in the New World in November of 1620.  Since it was during the early part of winter, it was very difficult for them to find food and build shelter.

Already weakened by their two-month voyage, most of the passengers failed to survive the first few months in their new homeland.

Fortunately, native people already lived in the Massachusetts Bay area.  These native people were called Wampanoag and they shared their knowledge of local crops and navigation with the “coat-men” as they called the English.  They helped the colonists survive.

The English colonists we call Pilgrims celebrated days of thanksgiving as part of their religion. But these were days of prayer, not days of feasting.

Our national holiday, “Turkey Day” really stems from the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest. It was truly a time to Be Thankful!


Our Abundant Life

Next, let’s advance about 400 years to today and take a little different perspective by thinking about the advances, listed below, that have occurred in the past 100 years.  These items are the next reasons to Be Thankful!

In the last century child mortality has dropped 90%, while our life span has doubled.

Average per capita income worldwide has tripled.

It takes a significantly smaller amount of our weekly or monthly earnings to feed ourselves as groceries cost 13 times less than they did in the 1870s. We have more money to spend on other items than feeding ourselves.

Poverty has declined more in the last 50 years than it did in the previous 500 years.  Seventy percent of the people who are classified as being at a poverty level have running water, in-door toilets, housing, refrigerators, TVs, cell-phones, and cars.  This means that 70% of people at the poverty level have items that were only dreamed about by, and would be luxuries of, the wealthiest like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and John Rockefeller … who were mega millionaires in the past century.  And the reality is that we’re just getting started with these advances.  There are huge forces at work that will soon bring an even greater world of abundance to us and it is indeed a time to Be Thankful!

And, just in the past few months, while we were being savaged by fire-storms, hurricanes, and a toxic election season, we are seeing significant advances on the economic front.

The wage gap between workers in China and the USA is shrinking.  Only ten years ago, the wage gap difference was 22 times; today it is down to just under 10; and in 2015 the wage gap is likely to be under five.  As a result, there is a Revival in American Manufacturing which will provide a boost for our economy.

The global energy map is being redrawn with the resurgence of oil and natural gas production in the USA.  This is spurring economic activity, potentially reducing the gas and electricity prices, and changing the role of global energy trade.  By 2020, the U.S. is projected to become the largest global oil producer and a net exporter by 2030 surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia, This energy comeback for America is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and is planting the seeds for boosting our economy and providing energy independence for the USA.

Just like the Pilgrims who were appreciative of their life of abundance and indulged in our first Thanksgiving celebration, we should Be Thankful we live in a time and place, where even though it seems as if we are in a state of flux and anxiety, we can be like the Phoenix (who rose from its own ashes) and reboot our careers and our lives to indeed have an abundant future.


Celebrating Your Abundant Harvest

Finally, it is indeed almost Turkey Day... which means you're probably going to be spending a lot of time in airports, hiding out from relatives, and relaxing on the couch -- all of which are great times to catch up on some reading, reflecting on our lives, and giving thanks.

Actually, there's just something about waking up from a turkey-induced coma that can give you a completely fresh perspective.

Here is one more perspective and the final item for you to think about during this season for us to Be Thankful. 

In calendar terms, Thanksgiving follows harvest as the seasons are circular.  The autumn harvest follows the Spring planting  and a long, hot Summer of farming.  Planting is motivated by the harvest so the more you harvest, the more likely you will be to plant aggressively and farm tirelessly and enthusiastically.

Our nation’s financial condition reflects how many, or how few, of its citizens are now motivated to plan and farm well.

To some, it seems easier to camp out and protest than work day and night to create something of worth.

Plus, these days there is much criticism of those who plant aggressively, farm tirelessly and enthusiastically, and harvest abundantly.

There is an evil anti-achievement, pro-entitlement, socialist-communist movement once again attempting to assert itself, weaving through politics and public policy, media, and academia.

If you create an abundant harvest, you will have critics and you have this entire movement as your enemy.

You may think you are merely running an exceptionally successful hardware store in Omaha (for example) but you are actually part of an epic battle.

So I too wish for you a harvest that all will envy; and a home your enemies can’t stop taking pictures of and gossiping and griping about.  By creating such harvest, you are making the greatest possible contribution to the cause.

Warren Buffet may feel guilty, in his advanced age about his wealth, but he should not as his companies employ over 200,000 people.  Not only should he pay less tax than his secretary, he should get a free pass.  We all owe him.

I am here and writing this message to be about the harvest of you my reader. Not to demand more of it; not to feed those who skipped the spring planting or summer’s work, but to join in your celebration. It is indeed a time to Be Thankful!

If you have a green thumb, overalls, and work shoes in your closet … I am here to join in your celebration!

Yes, this is a time to Be Thankful!  We have our dignity, our acquired skills, and our willingness to work.

Let’s end with a great story from Earl Nightingale about the pastor who stopped alongside the road and walked over to speak with a farmer at work.  The pastor praised the magnificent farm God had blessed the farmer with.  The farmer replied, “Yes, I have been blessed. But you should have seen this place when God had it all to himself.”

This is a good time to thank my family, my friends, my business associates, and all those who have been inspired by my work and benefited by our interactions. God bless all of you!

Together, let us Be Thankful for the abundance we have and the abundant future in front of us.

Now go out there and have a Happy Thanksgiving and Enjoy “Turkey Day!”

I Hope You Enjoy the Posts. Let Me Know What You Think.

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