Sometimes it’s hard to be thankful. Or, perhaps I should say that with everything going on in this country, and around this world, it is more difficult to see all that for which we should be thankful. Sometimes we only see the negative. As far as that goes, some folks only look for the negative. It is my hope that this holiday each of us finds something to include in our prayer of Thanksgiving. It’s there. Somewhere.
As for me and my little family, we’d like to be thankful that the new roof is on top of the house, but the fact of the matter is that the new roof is still piled in the front yard because it has been raining ever since the new roof was delivered. I suppose we still should be thankful that the process has begun.
We do have a new back porch. A back porch, mind you, that has not been covered since the end of August in 2005. That’s when Hurricane Katrina decided we didn’t need trees around our house, nor a covered back porch. So to have that porch and that part of the roof completed, I am thankful.
I’m also thankful — and not so thankful — that football season is winding down. We’re a houseful of Mississippi State graduates and every home game this year — with the exception of this past Saturday — has been a night game. I’m just too old to be rolling into Sebastopol at 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings.
I’ll miss the comradery of the tailgate but it will start all over again before we know it, and for now I’ll be thankful for a good Saturday night of sleep.
I’m thankful for my job, and I’m thankful for my wife’s job and I’m really thankful my daughter has a good job that she truely enjoys as well.
I’m thankful for our old worn out cars that still crank every morning and take us where we wish to go, and I’m extremely thankful that I don’t have a car payment. Plus I’m thankful for this wooden desk that I’m knocking on as I’m being thankful for those cars.
I am thankful for our old dirt road, and hay bales, and skunks, and cows, and thrown away kittens that make country life more special. I’d be really thankful for a load of gravel and a motor grader after all the rain last week, but whenever that does come I’ll be just as thankful then.
I’m super thankful that the kids in that Scott Central bus wreck last Thursday are all okay and I’m thankful the bus driver is recovering as well. It seems that we are hearing more and more about school bus accidents and folks not paying attention to stopped school buses all around this country. I would sure be extra thankful if everyone would start paying better attention to the same. It is the law!
There is plenty more for which to be thankful, and thankful I am as in years past. This year, however, there are a couple of people I’m more thankful for than ever before and I should be ashamed for saying that.
My mom has endured some health issues this year and something of that nature with aging parents always makes us more aware that we all face the inevitable. Or it should.
I’m very thankful that she is doing much better and seems to be improving every day. I’m also thankful that my dad is in pretty good shape himself and has been there every step of the way during my mom’s recovery.
Literally, every step of the way!
As I’ve said here before, there is only one other member of our closest family of friends that still has both parents alive besides me. Most don’t have either. We’re a lucky family and for that I’m oh so very thankful.
I suppose it is not so hard to be thankful. It’s not hard to be thankful at all. In fact, I never should have even said it was.
