Thankful Week

“A basic law: the more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.”

~ Norman Vincent Peale

It’s been a rough fall. Heck, 2016 has had some major suckage.

We’re weary from the election. We’ve lost way too many celebrities. There have been too many shootings. Too many tragedies. Too many natural disasters.

Still we as a people, particularly Americans, have a lot to be thankful for.

And yes, one of them indeed is the peaceful transfer of power.

It’s Thanksgiving Week. Never mind that history got the story of the real first American Thanksgiving wrong (look it up, it will do you good). But let’s spend the week remembering the things for which we have to be Thankful. Make it more than just a thirty second “prayer” before you gobble up your Thanksgiving feast and go back to sleeping in front of the football game.

To that end, I’m taking the week off from the blog. I need the break. We probably all do.

Tomorrow we remember the loss of JFK, C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley.

Do you remember where you were on November 22, 1963?

I was five-years-old. I know, hard to imagine, right? I was at home. My aunt was babysitting and my brother came home early from school with the news.

I remember little other than the television being tuned to the funeral. With two stations that’s really all that was on. I just knew the day was significant.

The day has other significance for me, 30 years ago on November 22, I married my bride. A couple of years ago, I told the story here. Her father used to tell her mother that “I told you when we got married that I loved you and that if I ever changed my mind, I’d let you know.” It must’ve worked for them because their marriage lasted more than 50 years.

But, “I love you” shouldn’t be a one-time thing. And it’s not.

Life is challenging, life sucks sometimes and the past few months for us have had personal challenges that have nothing to do with the election or celebrity deaths.

As I said in 2014, I just wouldn’t want to be this miserable with anyone else.

I love you, Vanessa.

You should get a blog. No, seriously.

I digress.

Our Thanksgiving table will be a little smaller and a lot quieter this year since the passing of my stepfather last month.

But we’ll gather, the food will be plentiful, the house will be warm.

And there’s a good chance that our family, like yours, will be just a little weird.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Enjoy the turkey, enjoy the parades, enjoy the football. And yes, enjoy the family.

I suppose if you’re one of the types to get up early and shop on Black Friday I can tell you to enjoy that too. I won’t be joining you.

However, I will join you back here on Monday morning.

Before I go, enjoy the best Thanksgiving television ever…

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