One of my favorite holidays passed us by last week. It was not a normal Thanksgiving Day for us as we spent the day truly being thankful for the family and things we have in life. Thanksgiving originally started back in the 1600’s when the Pilgrims and the Indians had a feast for 3 days to celebrate a great harvest. They were showing the gratefulness for a good season; allowing the growth of the fruits, vegetables and so forth. As time went by it actually became a national Holiday and it was a time for families across the nation to give thanks for the food and other things they had throughout the year.
Today we are so spoiled we forget about the things that we should really be thankful for in life. Like eating a hot meal every day, sometimes 2 and 3 meals a day, having a roof over our heads, waking up every morning and putting two feet on the floor, or even just waking up. Instead we cry because we don’t have the finer things in life, we have to make our lunch everyday instead of going out for lunch, we can’t buy the outfit we really want because it cost too much, and the list goes on and on. Think about those people who never get to experience life in a normal state or those who get ill at a very early stage in life and there is no cure. These people are thankful for the time they lived normal lives, or are thankful for being able to wake up every day because they have experience life in a different light.
My future father-n-law was diagnosed with prostate cancer a couple of weeks ago. His prostate was 75% covered in cancer and surgery was a must right away. Therefore we scheduled his surgery the day before Thanksgiving. Being he is 64 and is a diabetic he was a high risk patient, but thankfully the surgery went well and he is on his way to recovery. He had to spend 2 and half days in the hospital which is where we spent Thanksgiving. And for us it was fine because we were just happy to have dad well because that is what we were truly thankful for. Having the family all together; supporting and guiding every each other through the hard times.
While times like this is never nice, it does end up bringing family together and making everyone realize how short life can be and how important it is to make the best of it. Spend extra time with family, call often if they are not near you, and help people out when you can by donating your time, clothes, money. Doing someone a favor because it will benefit them; not you. A friend recently got married and donated money to the cancer society to show thanks for her guest. Things like this make a difference so whether you give back in a small way or a big way…every bit of it counts.
When we were children we would have to go around the table and each share what we were thankful for and I really liked that because it made you think about things a little deeper. I plan to carry out that same tradition with my family one day too. So did you ask yourself this year…What were you thankful for? Please share as I love hearing everyone’s story…each of them are special!