Take the time to be thankful

Thanksgiving is only a couple days away. The shelves in the grocery stores have way too many empty spots and it surprises me to discover that crackers are in short supply but there are plenty of Hostess chocolate cupcakes just waiting to jump into my grocery cart. Next week it could be the opposite.

While the stores aren’t as well-stocked as they used to be, there is still plenty to be thankful for. Tops on my gratitude list is indoor plumbing. I grew up with indoor plumbing but when Mom married the guy down the street, his house had an outhouse and a water pump outside the back door.

After Mom moved in he ran a water line into the kitchen. We still had to heat water on the stove and go outside to the outhouse when we needed to. 

I had lived there a year before he hooked up a shower in the cellar and installed a much appreciated water heater. We had to go outside to get to the shower but it was better than washing out of a basin. They finally put in a proper bathroom after I left.

My gratitude list begins with indoor plumbing closely followed by being thankful that my stepdad had the courage and the knowledge to install the plumbing.

Next on the list is modern heating. I grew up on a farm. We heated with propane and natural gas. It was always cold in the house in the winter and I stayed as close to the stove as I could.

It was never enough.

Then, after Mom got married, they had a coal furnace. They would order coal in the late autumn and it usually lasted all winter. There was no hanging around their stove as it kept the little house nice and toasty. It was so warm inside that I wonder if that stove started global warming all by itself. 

These days we have a traditional furnace and ductwork. I will take that over either of the previous options. 

I am thankful that my gangly night blooming cereus has a short bloom time. It has the most gorgeous flowers I’ve ever seen. The plant itself is overly friendly and reaches out to anybody who gets close to it.

As with the other houseplants, it spends its summers outside and its winters indoors. This was the first year that it hadn’t finished blooming before bringing it inside.

A few days later it came into the house. I thought I smelled a trace of sewer gas. I finally figured out that it was the blossoms that smelled so bad. I had tried many times to catch a whiff of its aroma and had come to the conclusion that they didn’t need an aroma because the flowers are so showy. I hope it is done blooming for the year.

Speaking of plants, the Christmas cactus that my brother, David, bought me several years ago is in full bloom. It reminds me of when Mom would call and tell me she had three blooms on hers. There are far more than three on the one I have.

I am thankful for Mrs. Silvers, my first and second grade teacher. She taught me to read, which allows me to go anywhere. I am also thankful for my third grade teacher, Mrs. Reed. She is the one who sent a note home with me that said I needed glasses. Even though I blacked out several words, I was taken to the optometrist and was soon the owner of hated pink glasses that did nothing to improve my vision. I was supposed to get used to wearing glasses before they would correct my eyesight.. Needless to say, I never did get used to them. I was in sixth grade before my vision was corrected.

There are so many people on my thankfulness list. Family is always loved, Readers, even the ones who think I’m dreary lately, are appreciated. Neighbors, ex-coworkers, the ladies who are in the book reading group, carvers and random people around town round out my thankfulness list. 

Thanksgiving is fast approaching. No matter how you do or do not celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you take a minute to think about everything you are thankful for.