Thanks-Living 2023

So here we are, Thanksgiving 2023. I could ask what you're thankful for. I could tell you what I'm thankful for. I could simply encourage you to spend the next few hours fixated not on fixin's but on what you've been given over the past three hundred sixty-five days. I could do something flashy and new and totally unrelated to this day consecrated for gratitude. Hasn't gratitude been done to death? 

I think, perhaps, gratitude has been un-done to death. In society's quest for more, in our nation's raising the bar for gender reveals and birthday parties and prom and proposals, in our "reality show" world where everyone's goal is fifteen minutes of fame and we do anything or outdo anyone in order to gain it, gratitude has indeed died. But from lack of use-- like muscles that begin to atrophy or a neglected houseplant. Saying thank you to anyone for anything is so last millennium.

I won't belabor the point, but I am encouraging you today to take a walk and smell the air. Look --I mean really look --into the faces of your loved ones. Knock on your neighbors' door just to wish them a happy start to a joyous season. Listen to the voices of those preparing your Thanksgiving Day feast, as they work and laugh in the kitchen. Taste your food as though it was your very first bite of pumpkin pie ever. Feel the tablecloth --linen and meticulously pressed just the way Mama taught you, or new and crinkly --paper with colorful turkeys and pilgrims. Leave the dishes until after the guests leave. Watch the game with your husband. Savor every moment. And revive gratitude. In your heart. At your table. In this world.

Photo THANKS goes to LuAnn Martin