“It puts it all in perspective doesn’t it.”
A friend told me this as we swapped stories about loved ones dealing with health issues. How it can be tough and overwhelming. Draining. How you can lose sight of how good you’ve had it. How you’re never quite cognizant of all you should be thankful for.
At least not all year. Usually on a day dressed with turkey and family gathered around, like the one we just had. But why not ALL year? That’s the lesson I’ve learned from helping my mother through her medial problems the past several months — take nothing for granted. Appreciate simple moments. Don’t let the little stuff eat at you. Always give thanks for what you have. Put it all in perspective.
So, three days after our “official” Thanksgiving, it’s not too late to take stock and give a little more thanks. Call it is a Thanksgiving Day resolution to do it all year.
For my daughter. She won a school award for fairness a month or two ago. Fairness! I was so proud. More so than if she came home with a Young Einstein award or some ingenious plan for renewable energy scribbled in her spiral-bound notebook. I thought about this the other day while talking about childhood bullying. How pervasive a problem it has become, or always has been. It made me think back to that award, and to what fairness really means. What a special trait to have. Couldn’t we all use more of it? I know I can. So I’m thankful she has it.
For my wife. Because she puts up with me. And while I might seem like a simple, easy-going fella’, I am actually a moody, complicated, under-appreciating so-and-so who makes far too many sarcastic wisecracks at her expense. They’re dumbcracks. And yet, she finds a way to see through them — to find some inner glimmer of hope for me. Something rewarding or worthy or at least bearable. Shoot, I want to send me packing to the curb some days. But she’s more patient and forgiving. And I’m thankful for that.
For life. Even though it seems filled up with problems and burdens and little hiccups strategically placed to hit us where it hurts, there’s always a bright side. More good than bad. Something to be thankful for. Maybe that’s perspective. Or pulling the wool over my eyes. But I’m thankful for it.
Three days later and I’m still giving thanks. Or trying to. That’s my Thanksgiving resolution, and my optimistic hope for the whole year.