I’m Grateful For Thanksgiving

When I was a kid, I never cared too much for Thanksgiving. I hate to admit it now, since I think it’s a wonderful thing to sit down on a designated day each year with friends, family and excellent food and take the time to acknowledge those things we are most grateful for. It is an excellent time to reflect, not on those things we want or wish we had, and not on what we could do better or must endeavor to improve. Christmas and New Years are waiting just beyond Black Friday to serve those particular emotional masters.

No, Thanksgiving is about looking your present day in the eye with a smile and saying thank you for the many wonderful things you already have.

This year I am thankful for many things, but I will limit my list to the following five.

1) I am thankful for my dreams. Yes, my muse is quite demanding and has me often running all over the place, wandering from children’s rhymes to horror and back, usually wearing a grin so wide I’ve considered traveling with a drool bucket. Yet having too many dreams, I am certain, is better than having too few or none at all. My dreams are fuel for my passion and my passion petrol for my future. I am grateful I can close my eyes and dream of all that will one day be any time I wish.

2) I am thankful for my family. Without my family as anchor, my most recent dreams would have never set sail. Cindy is my best friend, and though I know y’all are probably tired of reading about it, it’s true. She placed the pen in my hand and told me it was not only okay to dream, but that I deserved to stoke my desires. My children are so remarkable that I sometimes shudder when I ponder them too long; like dwelling on the scope of the universe or the concept of infinity. I’ve seen my sister more in the last few months than I have in the last couple of years and each moment has been wonderful. My mom comes over for dinner once a week, and though she annoys me without limits, I love her dearly and miss the days when we cannot connect. I don’t see my father nearly as often as I’d like, but he is often in my thoughts as well.

3) I am thankful for my health. Though I was 175 pounds of pure uncut pain and suffering a few weeks back, I am lucky to be as healthy as I am. I’m strong, with enough emotional and physical fitness to make what would have been a difficult year into just another hurdle to jump. In the past I have been guilty of wanting the perfect body, the type that gets a third look because the second wasn’t enough. Yet rarely have I been willing to embark on the difficult, sustained work required to make it happen. It took me until my early thirties to realize that fitness is far more than the definition in my abs. I’m now content with my daily sit-ups and push-ups, running up and down the stairs approximately 1,437 times per day, and keeping away from peanut M&M’s by the bucket. I’ve never felt healthier, even though I’m a tad soft around the tummy more often than I’m not.

4) I am thankful for an audience. Thanks to all of you, and to all the scattered readers across the Internet who read my words and help me to refine my purpose. I enjoy writing under most any circumstance, but it is a unique reward to write for an audience. For all who read my words and enjoy their rhythm, thank you. You make my world a better place and I truly appreciate it.

5) I am thankful for Cindy’s cooking. I think a large part of the reason I didn’t dig on Thanksgiving too much as a kid was simply that the menu did little for me. I know, I know I must be some kind of Un-American heathen helmet wearing buffoon to not like the Thanksgiving menu. It is possible I would like turkey a lot more if I wasn’t haunted by the memory of my mother buying a 97lb bird every year, even when it was just the four of us, because any turkey that weighed less than a kindergartner was “mostly carcass.” Cranberry sauce and yams = yucky. Mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie delicious. Everything else, okay. What’s my vice? Pasta, and lots of it. Every year Cindy makes three different kinds. See #3.

It would be nice if we stepped outside ourselves more often and acknowledged those things we are most grateful for with every meal, but the truth is that would mute much of the impact. I’m glad there is a designated time of year when we can pass appreciation around the table and nod our heads in gratitude.

This year, I am grateful for Thanksgiving.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Writer Dad

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