Fruitful Fields and Healthful Skies
Fruitful Fields and Healthful Skies
In my former life, I wrote an annual Thanksgiving column for the community newspapers I published. It was a chance each autumn to reflect on the year and offer thanks to my team and community. I’m back in the habit of writing lately and decided to return to the Thanksgiving essay.
A speechwriter at heart, I began each year’s entry with a callback to one of my favorite speeches in history – President Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation on Oct. 3, 1863 (delivered by Lincoln, but written by then-Secretary of State William H. Seward).
“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.”
Lincoln shared these words in the throes of a nation at war with itself. When he delivered this address, barely three months had passed since Gettysburg where 51,000 soldiers from both armies had been killed, wounded, captured, or gone missing during the three-day battle. Imagine the weight of those words. Fruitful fields and healthful skies.
Though Lincoln acknowledged the “lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged,” he maintained that there was plenty of reason to express gratitude. Following the Industrial Revolution, the nation's factories and farms flourished. Population growth soared, and, aside from the internal conflict, the country faced no foreign aggression. Fruitful fields and healthful skies.
The year 1863 was certainly tumultuous, full of strife and discord. We find ourselves in 2023 grappling with similar tensions, harboring strife and discord in a divided society 160 years later.
Still yet, fruitful fields and healthful skies remain as relevant today as they were that day in 1863.
Maybe this year has not gone the way you had planned. You might be facing economic pressure, navigating a health challenge, grieving a loss, ending a relationship, or changing your address.
Maybe 2023 was the year you gave up on a dream or faced the sting of a layoff. It’s possible that you lost someone close or had to make the difficult decision to distance yourself from someone for your own good.
Author Og Mandino wrote:
“Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.”
In every hardship, there lies a seed of good—a promise that from struggle can emerge prosperity. It is from the depths of challenge that we often discover our greatest strengths. There is always a seed of good. That seed will bear fruit.
I am thankful for my family and friends, their health and mine, my work, and my faith – all of which remind me why I get out of bed each morning. Fruitful fields and healthful skies.
Take time this weekend to reflect and remember your blessings. Let us acknowledge and celebrate the seed of good in our lives. Express gratitude for your family and friends out loud, enjoy their company, and feast. May fruitful fields and healthful skies guide us forward.
Happy Thanksgiving.
