A POST TO THOSE WHO WONDER WHAT TO BE THANKFUL FOR

Today, we Americans gather friends and family to eat, laugh, share memories, and make new ones, while giving thanks for all our blessings.

But there are many who don’t look forward to this day. You may not have friends or family. You may not have a job or a permanent home. There may be days when you are hungry.

Or, perhaps, you do have these things, and more, but still feel an emptiness and wonder if this is all there is to life.

The pain can seem never-ending. What, you wonder, can you feel thankful for?

There is one thing that all of us can give thanks for on this day and every other day as well.

It is the blessing of life.

I am not religious and I am certainly no Pollyanna. But I do know that every day you wake up is something to feel thankful for. Because to be alive is to have opportunity, to have hope. Your life is not finished, therefore, your situation is not permanent.

Today is brand new, a blank slate where you make the decision about how to fill it. You may decide to fill it the exact same way as you did yesterday. You may decide to begin a one hundred and eighty degree change in your life. But the decision is available because you are alive for another day.

So give thanks—to your God or creator or consciousness—for being alive yet another day. And feel blessed because you are still here to choose how you’ll forge your future.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.