The Gift of Enough

The more I travel, the more grateful I am for this country.
I love the freedom.
I love the opportunity.
I love the spirit that shaped the place I call home.

But I also see something that sits heavily on me.

We are surrounded by more than any generation before us.
More choices.
More pressure.
More urgency.
More of everything.

And somehow, all that abundance hasn’t made life fuller.
It has made it feel crowded on the inside.
Not peaceful.
Just cluttered.

I noticed it at a child’s birthday party.
A mountain of presents.
One gift opened, set aside, replaced by the next.
And then the next.
On any other day, that first gift would have held their attention for hours.
Not today.
There was simply too much to take in.

In other parts of the world, I see something different.
People linger at their meals.
They take time for conversation.
They slow down for moments we rush past without thinking.
They seem to feel more deeply because they allow room for the feeling.

Here at home, it’s easy to fill every hour.
Easy to speed past blessings I never pause long enough to see.
Easy to mistake activity for purpose.

That’s why gratitude sometimes feels distant.
Not because God stopped giving.
But because I stopped noticing.

Some of the deepest thankfulness in my life has grown in seasons of subtraction.
Less urgency.
Less comparison.
Less weight on my mind.

Maybe this Thanksgiving isn’t about adding anything new.
Maybe it’s about clearing space.
Because a grateful heart grows best in a life that makes room for it.

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