I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving Day and take just a moment to share with all of you a few things for which I am truly thankful.
There once was a day I would have laughed at anyone who said they were thankful for waking up and finding themselves alive. Today, do that with much different meaning than a few years ago.
You know, last night I was coming home from my daughter’s home, where I had spent some time with my granddaughter after picking her up from recreation camp. I stopped in at a Walgreen’s drug store to pick up a couple of items. As I got out of my car and began to walk toward the entrance, it hit me like a ton of bricks……..I was walking and I had no pain. It was truly a great moment and one in which I am thankful.
But that is minor. I am thankful because I have a wife who loves me despite everything. She is supportive, understanding and we share in all that we do. My daughter and son are the best. There once was a day when I wanted them to look up to me, to use me as a reference point and someone they could fall back on. Now that they are both into their thirties and I am…..let’s see, um, er, ah, 39 (man they are catching up to me), my perspective has changed. I now look up to them. My wife and I did our thing and raised them in the way in which we thought they should go and we hope they will not depart from that. When a man can look upon his own children and his grandchildren and rest in the fact that they all have happy and fruitful lives, he is truly thankful.
I could go on forever about how thankful I am for everything but instead, I want to take a minute and express my gratitude toward everyone who plays a roll in serving this great nation and fighting for our freedom. Listening to the radio yesterday, I heard a man speak about how thankful he was about everything………and this coming from a man who had lost his son in the war on terror in Afghanistan. I was without words.
There are those who wear the uniform and some that don’t. They risk their lives everyday for me and my family. For nothing else can a man expend such gratitude. Each of those individuals have families who have sacrificed and for that nothing I could ever say could express my ultimate thankfulness but I need to try.
All too often, many of us forget or never knew how much we have to be thankful for. Thankful that we can wake up each day living in a free country, a country where we can pray to God without fear of reprisal. I am thankful I can sit in front of my computer each day and express how I feel and share that with others. And yes, I am thankful that others can disagree with me because with that dissension comes the reassurance that we are free to do just that. It’s only part of what makes the nation great. For that I am thankful.
So, I hope you are finding your Thanksgiving Day wanting to give thanks, with the emphasis on giving.
Thank you to all my friends and readers of these blogs and all that you do. You have helped to make my life just that much better and for that, I am thankful.
Tom Remington
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