Gratitude is talked and written about a great deal as we approach Thanksgiving. I listen and take part but wonder if gratitude isn’t meant as an everyday occurrence. Isn’t there always something in a day you are grateful crossed your way?

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced
and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.
~~ William Faulkener

When I wake in the morning, it is simple to open my eyes and thank God for:

• Good health, both mine and my husband’s, as well as our ability to care for our home and ourselves.
• Another day to write, create, communicate, think, see, hear, breathe, and live and love.
• Our thriving children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
• Our marriage and life together.
• Our home and our ability to continue to live here.

Our days are spent in our individual work areas seeing each other only at lunchtime when I’m reminded of:

• Bob’s patient and forgiving nature.
• Many storms, big and small, survived surrounding jobs, finances, children.
• Mutual understanding and encouragement of the other’s creative gifts and talents.
• Satisfaction found in our morning devotional time.

And lastly, when I think of our many freedoms, I give thanks for:

• Freedom to practice our religion of choice where, when, and with whom we choose to worship.
• Freedom of speech allowing us to verbally express or write our thoughts and opinions freely and without fear.
• Freedom to vote.
• Freedom to seek medical care where and from the physician I choose.
• Freedom to gather in public places to enjoy friends, family, neighbors, and more without fear.

My friends, we are truly blessed in many ways. If you doubt that is the case, then look for a moment at the lives of those who are not living as we do:

• The hungry and homeless.
• Children and the elderly suffering from terminal illnesses without the benefit of good care and insurance.
• Friends and acquaintances who complain aloud to others about their spouses or significant others.
• Those going through separations and divorces, especially families with children.
• Victims, both male and female, of domestic abuse and violence, and children who are victims of abuse.
• Those struggling with mental illness who either harm themselves, their families, or innocent others.

• Those living under a government where religion is dictated.
• Those living where they are not allowed to think or speak freely.
• Those living where there is no democratic form of government and no freedom to vote.
• Those living where to gather in public may mean arrest or death.
• Those living in all parts of the world under some oppressive force over which they will never be able to climb out of poverty, homelessness, hunger, poor health, lack of education, and more.

• Those who immigrated to our country illegally and then brought children into the world who are American citizens, and all of whom are the object of much anger, debate, and confusion in our government and within our population.
• Refugees, whether from Syria or elsewhere, fleeing war-torn lands governed by a dictatorship where no one cares about who is hurting, dying, and leaving their homeland. Looking to other countries to take them, hopefully with help to return them to a peaceful homeland, they stand at the door and literally knock hoping not to be turned away. All while fear and doubt exist on both sides of the door.

Have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving!

If you feel so inclined, please leave a comment about how you’ll be spending Thanksgiving, what you feel thankful for, or why you struggle with the concept of gratitude. We speak openly and freely here, so please share your honest thoughts.