Giving Thanks On Thanksgiving

I have always looked forward to Thanksgiving.  Christmas is still my favorite, but I am fiercely protective of Thanksgiving. 

I’m just sayin’ . . . 

Personally, I don’t allow myself to look at store displays or listen to radio stations that seem determined to trample Thanksgiving and Halloween in their frantic push to get us to spend our money.  Heck, you know if they could back up, roll over Labor Day, and get a bite of the 4^th of July, they’d do that too!

Thanksgiving is a lot of things to a lot of people.  Most of us have time marked in the hallways of our minds around a certain Thanksgiving or two . . . Granddaddy’s last one, the one when mama burned the turkey, or the one when you finally graduated from the card table and got to eat at the big table.  With the adults.  Remember?  You were twenty-seven. 

My sister and I remember great Thanksgivings while we were growing up with Mama and Daddy at our grandparent’s house.  I spent one Thanksgiving working at a Zippy Mart in Auburn, Alabama and another at a friend’s house.  A few years ago, I was overseas with our troops for Thanksgiving.  I actually spoke at a makeshift hospital in the morning, traveled to another location, and that evening served food to a line of happy young people with trays in one hand and M-16’s in the other.

This Thanksgiving, I will be at home with family and friends.  And we will do something my father planted in my mind years ago.  We will be thankful.  Now, I know that seems to go without sayin’, but stay with me here.  Is it slightly possible that we become overwhelmed by all the hooplah and forget to be purposefully grateful on this, the one day of the year set aside for that specific purpose?

I’m just sayin’. . .

As you get ready for this wonderful holiday with your family, I hope you’ll take the time to listen as I read this Thanksgiving story to you.  Okay?  Close your eyes.  It’s just you, me, Polly, the boys, and a few friends in our living room.  This is Chapter 15 from Return To Sawyerton Springs.

Happy Thanksgiving.  And as this one unfolds, remember that I am grateful for you.

Your friend,

Andy