Giving thanks

The sun has gone down on this Thanksgiving Day of 2016 and I’ve been moved to tears by several warm and fuzzy, feel good stories I’ve seen on television news today, and ditto several moving, poignant posts on Facebook and elsewhere on the web.

Hearing all these testimonies made me feel a little guilty that I have spent a lot of time recently wallowing about what wasn't instead of being grateful for what is.

The past three years have been among the toughest of my life. After being laid off from a job for the first time in my professional life, I lost pretty much everything I had, material and otherwise. In addition to losing property and spending every penny I had saved just to scrape by and survive, I also lost my self-esteem and self-confidence, as well as my very identity and reason for getting out of bed on a daily basis. I didn’t realize how much of my identity was sunk into my job until that job was gone.

But in the big picture, I have much to be thankful for. Those who know my medical history know I’m very grateful simply to be alive. Past medical treatment is beginning to take its toll on my aging body and my lack of mobility often forces me to make decisions about social events when my mind is more than willing but the body says, “No way in hell.”

I’m grateful for the friends that continue to extend those invitations, no matter how many times I turn them down, and I’m extremely thankful for the wonderful friends I have in my life, even though I’m often not as good a friend as they are (you know who you are). 

I strive to be a better person and a better Christian and I’m thankful my good friends and Jesus Christ continue to love me unconditionally.

I’m extremely grateful to once again be a working journalist and happy to be welcomed with open arms by a new professional family. My life continues to be a financial challenge with part-time work, but part-time work beats the heck out of no work. And doing what I love is priceless.

I’m thankful for all the writers, photographers, artists, thinkers and philosophers in my life who make me appreciate more the beauty of our world, the genius of all our brains, the passions and opinions of others and the thinking and researching those passions and opinions inspire me to do.

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you are a personal friend and I’m grateful for you.

Hoping all of you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day shared with loved ones.

Let the Christmas music begin …