Reflect for a meaningful holiday

Do yourself a favor.
Take some time on Thursday to reflect.
You might even get a pencil and paper and make a list.
Reflect and catalog everything you can think of that you are thankful for.
Chances are, you’ll end up with something like this:
•Your parents.
•Your children.
•Your friends.
•Laughter.
•Babies.
•Music.
•Sunsets and sunrises.
•The right to vote.
•Freedom to speak your mind.
•The beauty of silence.
•The smell of mud after a spring rain.
•Aromas wafting from the kitchen as dinner comes together.
•The color of leaves in October.
•Tears.
•Old family stories told for the hundredth time.
•Community.
Each person’s list will be different, but everyone has something to be thankful for. And any thinking person knows that every day should be Thanksgiving. Thursday’s just the day we mark on the calendar.
Sure, it would be possible to make other lists — lists of fears, lists of grievances, lists of personal pain.
But that’s not what the act of thanksgiving is all about.
It’s about setting aside those fears and grievances and offering thanks for the countless daily joys that we so often don’t appreciate.
So do yourself a favor on Thursday. Indulge in a moment or two of deep gratitude. Reflect and be thankful. Do that, and you’ll have a meaningful holiday. — J.R.