ARE WE
THANKFUL?

Next week we'll celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S. For the first time since COVID took over our lives in March 2020, we may be able to celebrate one holiday in the "old style" that was what we expected to happen. November is a good time to start.

In case your situation is different--family all live too far away to get back for the holiday, people with jobs that require them to work in spite of it being a holiday, no one for you to join for a big noisy meal--whatever!--if your situation is different, you can still celebrate.

Facebook has a history of "30 Days of Gratitude"--you get on your page and list what you're grateful for that day. Pretty soon, Day 3 becomes Day 12 and then Day 26. How did that happen? Well, my thought is: once you start listing gratitudes, they keep multiplying.

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A few years ago I posted a week of gratitudes here on Thursday's Child--something for each day of the week, seven in all. Another time I listed 20 (!) reasons I'm grateful. (Surprised myself on that one.)

If you can't quite get your head around being grateful (some people don't even like the word, I'm told), then maybe if you call them blessings you'll feel more comfortable. A blessing is a gift--something you didn't ask/beg/plead for--it just came your way. And you accepted it. Or, you didn't.

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I'll start the ball rolling . . . and you must remember I'm not a "people person" in the accepted sense of the phrase, so keep that in mind as you read.

So, here goes. I'm grateful:

1. for family members who keep in touch--emails, texts, voice mails, in-person visits, letters and cards sent via USPS, Facebook postings, photos sent however. 

2. for friends who keep in touch--lots of Facebook postings, emails, letters and cards, texts, phone calls, in-person visits.

3. for kind neighbors--next-door, across the street, across town; people who give of their time to help my daughter and me with leaf removal, gutter cleaning, snow removal, outdoor painting--whatever jobs are too difficult or too time-consuming and a little help will be appreciated. People who share their baked goods from time to time. (We get a loaf of bread from next-door every Thanksgiving.)

4. for healthcare personnel whose lives are dedicated to keeping patients healthy, or if that isn't possible, for making patients comfortable.

5. for people who love their work: lawn service folks, carpenters and other contractors, letter carriers, cheerful checkouts at the grocery and discount stores, receptionists at professional offices who treat the folks who walk through the door as if they were the best thing that's happened all day. To name a few--there are tons more.

6. for people who are good at their creative tasks and want to share them. These include folks I know in person (painters, musicians, quilters, knitters) as well as online folks who share their expertise on YouTube and invite feedback from people they'll probably never meet.

7. for all the folks who figured out how we can have Sunday worship in our own homes; meetings via Internet; entertainment on TV and via the Internet that doesn't require us to be in crowds.

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Not bad for a non-people person, wouldn't you say? 

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On Thanksgiving Day my daughter and I will welcome her sister from Ohio for dinner at our house. We'll have roast chicken (none of us is crazy about turkey), roasted root vegetables, cranberry sauce or relish (to be decided), some kind of bread-y thing (gluten free, of course), and--TA-DA!--pumpkin pie made from Ohio pumpkins. Don't feel sorry for us if we don't have mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, green bean casserole, or five kinds of pie. We'll fix and serve and eat what we like best and enjoy it in companionable company.

Wishing you the same!

In the meantime, don't forget those Gratitudes (or Blessings)--if you write down one a day, you'll have 13 by the end of November!