Thanksgiving Day

I regularly try to remember to be grateful but it’s easy to forget sometimes. Sometimes it feels like things aren’t good and don’t look like they’re going to get better anytime soon. At times optimism requires us to intentionally summon it forth but, regardless of how we feel about our personal circumstances and whatever external problems are giving us anxiety, Thanksgiving is our annual reminder to be grateful.

This issue of the Courier arrives in the midst of Thanksgiving. If you pick it up on Wednesday you’re likely busy getting ready, if you read it on Thursday instead of eating yourself into oblivion, my condolences. If you read it on Friday, the busyness of the holiday is, perhaps, behind us and we can relax a bit.

Every one of us have arrived at this time through good fortune. We’re all the result of a long chain of life. Each and every one of us has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents. If we extend that out to just ten generations we each have 1,024 direct ancestors. Ten generations is, roughly, 200 to 250 years. That means, there were over one thousand folks since 1774 – 1824 who had to get enough basic life right in order for us to exist.

Granted, producing offspring doesn’t require a whole lot of skill and precious little thought but that’s still a lot of people who were in the chain that resulted in you and me.

I’m grateful for those who came before me that gifted life and lessons on how to live it as it should be lived. Not that I’ve always gotten things right, like all of us, I’ve goofed up a bunch of things. Of course, it is our goof-ups that teach us. We don’t learn from our successes, we learn from the pain of getting things wrong. So, I reckon we should be grateful for our goof-ups that taught us to do better.

I’m grateful to live in this beautiful place. This past week I saw an incredible sunrise from MacDonald Pass. The not yet visible sun painted a swath of sky a vivid red. Last Thursday afternoon I took a drive out in the countryside right as light was fading but there was still enough light to watch for foolish deer who might like to play “chicken”. This time of year the world is colored with deep but muted colors that are every bit as beautiful as in any season.

I’m grateful, as always, for family and friends. I’ve made a couple of new friends this year and that’s always a blessing. I grateful for folks I don’t even know. My grandchildren’s teachers are diligent and caring. It really does take a village to raise children and we’re lucky to live in a place where that’s a reality.

In this holiday season we acknowledge it isn’t material possessions that nourish us, it’s the intangible gifts for which we should be deeply grateful, and so, let us remember to give thanks.