I would like to wish all of the readers in the United States a Happy Thanksgiving and all of the readers who are not celebrating the holiday an extra happy Thursday!
As the name implies, Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for all of the good in your life. This can be good people, good fortune, good health and all of the other blessings that we tend to take for granted in our very busy daily lives. And traditionally, these blessings are celebrated with a feast. But all too often, the meaning and the importance of the day takes a backseat to a huge spread of food that is also seen as the kickoff of the holiday season. From Thanksgiving, we continue to ramp up the festive spirit and carry it right into the new year.
Abstractly, we all have some idea of how fortunate we are. To be reading this blog, you have access to the Internet, which means that you have a computer or some other smart device, electricity and most likely shelter. It is also a fair guess that you have all of your other basic needs being met such as clothing, transportation, and food. These things alone are not guaranteed to many people around the world, and they would gladly trade places just to have what we consider a bare minimum lifestyle. So clearly, I believe that everyone would agree, we all have a great deal to be thankful for today.
But what I am most thankful for today are the people who have enriched my life. I have lived a very comfortable life, but there were times when I lived paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes even that didn’t provide all that I needed for just a basic existence. I would not have gotten through many of those most difficult times, both financially and emotionally, without some amazing people in my life. I know that even if I lost my material things and the money that I have, I can survive and recover. But I could never recover if I were to lose my family, friends and loved ones. That would be too much to overcome.
At my age, many of my most loved and cherished family members and friends have passed on. So I like to take a little bit of quiet time and think about all of those people and how they changed my life and the person that I have become. Parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles have all helped me and loved me even when I made that a difficult task. They taught me the lessons that I needed to know to survive and the lessons that I needed to become a good person. I learned a strong work ethic from seeing their generations get up and go to work every day and give nothing but their best effort. I learned compassion as I watched them care for children and grandchildren, as well as their elderly family members. And I learned the importance of family as I watched them come together each year to celebrate not only another year but the fact that they could be together as a family to celebrate.
Many of these significant people from the early years of my life were much older than I. In several cases, I only remember them in their later years as elderly. Some were stooped and physically frail, but their spirit and love of family were robust. Sadly, I attended many funerals before I became a teenager and many more before I was old enough to even begin to find the wisdom of an adult. As a result, I never told many of those wonderful people just how much they meant to me. Now, I can look back and clearly see that Aunt Verona taught me so much about strength. At not even five feet tall, she was the strongest and most able-bodied person I knew. In an emergency or difficult time, she was always the voice of reason and the one to pull the family through. And Grandpa could so easily have become bitter when complications from his diabetes claimed both of his legs, but he never cursed his circumstances. Instead, he was always thankful for his family and what he saw as a wonderful life. I could continue with stories like this for days, but the point is that I have these stories and these memories. And that is because of the people who have been a part of my life.
I wish that I could have told these people how much they meant to me and how much I loved them and will love them forever. But the words and wisdom just were not within my grasp yet. So on Thanksgiving, I take a moment to thank them for their love and all that they shared with me that got me here to today. And then I promise to do my best to never miss another opportunity to tell someone in my life how much he or she means to me.