My many reason to be thankful:

As the leaves turn beautiful amber, passion red, desert brown, I know it’s that time of year again already. Thanksgiving---a time of bounty, a time of hope. This is when our family takes time to reflect upon the year going by and the year ahead. We sit around the table before we start our feast, asking one another what we are thankful for. Did we accomplish what we had hoped to in the year? We also continue with where we would like to be at, what we’d like to be doing or what we would like to accomplish by this time next year? We do this instead of making New Year resolutions that we never did keep. It’s probably about the same thing, yet somehow it seems more meaningful at this time of year. Everyone sets out to try harder to accomplish his or her goals, looking forward to chatting about them.

I ponder what I am going to say this year? In the days before the holiday, as I sit here while everyone is away at work or school staring at my now empty kitchen table and chairs, I realize something. Our year has had so many changes, so many happenings. I notice one chair will not be filled this year. My dad’s chair was added to our table three Thanksgivings ago. He had Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. We decided that it be best if he came to live with us so we could take care of him. We wanted to spend as much valuable time with him as possible before he forgot us all, had to go into a home or died. I remember him licking his chops eagerly saying, “Boy, that’s a big chicken. Can I have the drumstick?” “Sure can, I replied, “but, Dad, it’s a turkey.” He smiled through the whole meal, s did we. Usually that was my youngest son’s job to call the turkey a chicken. He has called it a chicken since he began talking., for some reason. I have yet to figure it out.

Then there is my husband’s chair. It is empty now, but he will be in it this Thanksgiving. As tears stream down my face, I think how different that could have been this year. I could have been staring at his empty chair for the rest of my life. My husband had a horrific accident in March. It left him with a collapsed lung, four broken ribs, and in intensive care. He is recovering nicely and is here with us. There are just a few things that I have to be thankful for. The memories of dad, my husband alive and well, my honor roll son who still calls my turkey a chicken and my son who hates both chicken and turkey but eats a bite on this day without fuss. I haven’t yet accomplished all my goals from last year. But I hope is renewed every year at this time because Thanksgiving does start a new year for our family. After all, it all comes back to family doesn’t it? No matter where you live, who you are, or what you do, here’s what people had to say they are most thankful for: Cleo Lawson, an Oklahoma City bombing victim, says he is most thankful for family and friends. He cherishes them. Dan Bolen, a veteran from New Jersey, says he also is most thankful for his family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving.

©1997Nancy Lee Destiny