My favorite holiday of the year has arrived. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
I’ve noted many times over the years that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s a day filled with family, food and football and more food.
Our forefathers didn’t have family and football in mind when the first recorded Thanksgiving in 1621 took place. It’s been nearly 600 years since colonial Pilgrims celebrated the fall harvest with the Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth.
Today, the tradition of celebrating the fall harvest continues with a bountiful feast presented by our families. At some point in time, the meaning of Thanksgiving shifted to where it has become a day of thanks. In elementary school as a child, I recall having to write a paper on all the things that made me thankful.
I made a list then and I can make a list now.
I want to thank everyone who ever came into my life – friend and foe alike.
I can say that everyone I’ve ever met in my life … and I mean everyone … has affected my life in some way, shape or form. Everyone has become the sum of all my parts.
I am thankful for those who have shown me love and allowed me to love back.
I’m thankful not only for those who have praised me, but for those who have been equally critical.
What would life be if we could not be thankful for our parents? I’m thankful and grateful for the life lessons they passed on to me. I’m also grateful and thankful for the 88-plus years my mom was in my life and, although saddened by my dad’s battle with early onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, I’m happy he passed on the value of being kind to people.
I’m thankful for my family being in my life. There is nothing more gratifying then being with family.
You would think as a cancer survivor, I’d be thankful for that. I am, but I’m just as thankful I had cancer. It changed me; it made me appreciate everything so much more and through different eyes. Having cancer made me realize how important life is.
Cancer heightened my senses to sympathy and empathy. Cancer made me … no, it forced me … to stop and smell the roses and appreciate the highs and the lows in life. Cancer made me realize you shouldn’t sweat the small things in life.
I also believe because of cancer, I’m a little less fearful of dying than I used to be. It made me aware of my mortality.
I don’t have a lot in my life, but I’m thankful for what I do have.
Having this column for the last 19 years not only blows me away that it’s been that long, but I’m thankful for the opportunity to do so. I’m also thankful for a man by the name of Russell Johnson for convincing me to “just do it.”
I said no many times to the opportunity because I thought who cares what I have to say? With Russell’s strong case, I finally said yes.
Russell told me he took a chance when he was younger when he took advantage of his GI Bill for Veterans when he got out of the service and enrolled in acting school. He said, “Look where it got me. You never know where it can get you.”
Russell went on to have a career in acting where he played his most famous role, the professor from “Gilligan’s Island.”
I’m also thankful for the late Chick Watson for taking a chance on an unknown, untested, inexperienced writer and putting my first feature article on the front page of the Sunday Dispatch when I wanted to share my dad’s plight with Alzheimer’s Disease.
If you sit back and think about all you have to be thankful for in your lifetime, I bet you can fill a full page of paper.
We use the word thankful and grateful interchangeably and, no matter how you slice the pie, which you will slice today, they are in fact, the same.
There is indeed a lot to be grateful as you sit with family for your feast. Just look around the table. No matter the size of your gathering today, realize how thankful you are to be among people you love.
I will be with family on this holiday, sharing stories and continuing traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation.
We will use many recipes my mom left behind that she learned from her mother and my daughters continue to use.
I will think of my mom and dad and grandparents and other family members who have departed from this earth … and yes, I will be thankful they were in my life.
No matter how you celebrate today, with family or not, with traditions or non … take a few minutes to reflect on what makes you truly thankful for what you have in your life.
Quote of the week
“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of out thanksgiving.” – W.T. Purkiser, American preacher, author
Thought of the week
“I love Thanksgiving because it’s a holiday that is centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.” – Ethiopian restaurateur
Bumper sticker
“Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.” – Seneca, Spanish philosopher
