Being Thankful

Many moons ago when I was a wee lad we made turkeys out of a tracing of our hand.  Dressed up an outline of a Pilgrim with a big hat and buckles on his shoes.  We put feathers on a native American (formerly known as Indian).  We learned how thankful and sharing everyone was back in the day, and then we had time off to eat turkey with our families.  We got to travel to relatives who would say "the last time I saw you, you were this tall".  Ok, so now that I am not such a wee lad, we know that Columbus was not a Pilgrim, extorted money from the Spanish for a boat ride -because he was just a crazy drunk sailor.  He most likely did not even set foot in what we consider the good ole USofA.  Vikings, not the ones from Minnesota, probably discovered this here place, but just did not like being away from home -so they left.  Of course the "Indians" (native Americans) were already here and had been for sometime.  They just did things differently, so we took over.  We all know that the aliens were here long ago -saw it on the History channel, has to be true.


As Robert said "Ramble On".  I am not sure any of us can be certain what or how Thanksgiving came about, nor do we really care.  Turns out that thanksgiving is a time of rest and nourishment for the upcoming battle to be waged on the following Black Friday.  We all watch TV, eat and store up as many calories humanly possible and try to rest and relax.  We know the following day that we will not have time to eat for fear of missing that big deal, we will need our strength to fight for a parking space.  We need our rest to make that midnight opening, or if you are weak that 4 o'clock doorbuster.  [yes, spellchecker doorbuster is a word, take your little red squiggly line and shove it] 

That's right Col. Kurtz "The horror...the horror".  What have we done?  What have we done with our time of thanksgiving?  Black Friday is turning into a black hole and it is going to suck Thanksgiving down with it.  Say no, spend your time wisely, do something you like to do...if it happens to be shopping then good on ya.  Seriously spend your time like it is all you have.  Time. 

Be thankful for what you are thankful for.  What does that mean?  It means stop taking everything for granted, like life is owed to you.  It is not.  Life is not owed, life is given.  Like a present, take it and be thankful for it, be thankful for every moment that you draw breath.  The good book says that "life is but a vapor".  It is here today and gone tomorrow.  No matter where you are in your life you have something to be thankful.  I like to talk about perspective, and this is where perspective comes into play. 

The Real Voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having NEW EYES ~Mary Engelbreit

To be cheesy I would like to list all the things that I am Thankful, but I will spare you.  I am very thankful and I will try not to take life for granted.  After reading this think of something that you consider insignificant and be thankful for it in your life.

I'm thankful that one of you read this...