A Word About Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful day at my sister's house. My mother and five of my six siblings and their families were there. While we missed having Bjorn and Mathias with us, I'll have to admit that their absence gave me a chance to visit with my family more than I would have had they been there. The food was fantastic. I just wish I had the leftovers!!

With regard to giving thanks, I don't need a special day, as I cannot remember a day in many years - regardless of how lousy a day it was - that I have not said "thank you."

This past week, my oldest son (the father of my grandchildren) was reflecting on the past two years of his life. He asked how many other people I knew that had literally lost all of their personal possessions not once but twice in a matter of months. In May of 2006, he and his family lost their home in a fire. In November of last year, he and is wife were divorced. In six months time, he started over twice. While obviously it affected him and continues to affect him more than I realized, I never thought all that much about the loss of "stuff" but more about what he still had/has. He had a loving family, great friends, his health and best of all, healthy and happy children - all of the things money cannot buy.

At his age, I guess what I owned was important to me, too. Somewhere down the line that changed, probably around the time I started saying "thank you" every day with the full knowledge that you can have nothing in the way of worldly possessions and still have everything that matters.