Thanksgiving Day, USA, is over. Remains of the feast crowd the refrigerator and . . . my tummy. It is a much-loved holiday for many reasons, and all it requires is that I take a moment to count my blessings.
Around Thanksgiving, teachers often ask younger students to make a "thankful list." As a new teacher I remember feeling disappointed by their answers.
"I'm thankful for my family, my house, my pet, my friends." And here their lists stopped. All identical. All common things that everyone was thankful for.
I tried to elicit more, something different, something broader, more expansive. But they couldn't add more. Their world was what they could see from their front porches, and that's what they were thankful for.
The view from my front porch extends farther-- it's global-- and I have a long list of things to be thankful for, things I could never have imagined when I was young.
But when all is said and done, it is my family and friends I remain most thankful for, like I have since I was a little kid.
To my friends: work friends, school friends, neighbors, old friends and new, up-close friends, and cyber friends I've come to know through the Internet, and to my family, I'm thankful for all the pleasure you add to my life.
~~~~~
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. ~ Meister Eckhardt
Comments
Is that your son and daughter in the photograph? Gorgeous kids!
I'm really thankful for meeting you, and I hope we can get together again soon! I've missed you.
Hope you and your family have a wonderful Sunday!
Lisa~ No one who knows my ex ever says Joanna looks like me, but those who don't know him often say it. Strange.
Alice~ You are always so good to me. I like that, need that . . . don't necessarily deserve it, but still . . .:>)
Dave~ . . . I'd say the opposite, but I'm flattered.
Wanda, Rain and Casdok~ There is so much more to friends than their actual presence, isn't there?