Thanksgiving 2025

I'm pretty much always reading (and never finishing) Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. I'm not religious, or overtly spiritual, but I think it's a beautiful and grounding work. Here's one section that I really enjoy:

The basic condition for being happy is our consciousness of being happy. If we are not aware that we are happy, we are not really happy. When we have a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. But when we do not have a toothache, we are still not happy. A non-toothache is very pleasant. There are so many things that are enjoyable, but when we don't practice mindfulness, we don't appreciate them.

2025 has been a year of challenges, in many ways. Busier, more stressful career-wise, more uncertain and disheartening in terms of world events and politics... Though it's not a direct antidote, I think that gratitude is an important countermeasure to worldly despair; without it, you can lose sight of why it's worth trying to keep nudging the world a little closer toward goodness, love, empathy, compassion, etc. And given the life I was born into, gratitude is an easy practice. Even during the worst times, I'm fortunate: access to enough and healthy food, a nice place to live, a secure (for a while, at least) job, a loving family, good friends, and a partner who strictly makes my life better. And I could go on: health, (relative) youth, access to education, many hobbies that make me feel fulfilled. These things are all worthy of appreciation, but listing them out it's not easy to feel visceral gratitude for such affordances: they're too abstract, too complex, too much. Instead, I'll keep things simple. I'm thankful for my non-toothache today.

Happy Thanksgiving.