Reflection: A Few Moments of Thanksgiving Gratitude!

Today was Thanksgiving here in the United States.

One of our homegrown pumpkins from this autumn

I realize that doesn't mean much to people in many parts of the world, in fact it didn't mean much to me as a Danish national when I first came to this country in 1981. But since I have lived here for a long time, I have come to adopt this holiday.

For many Americans, the Thanksgiving holiday is about getting together with a bunch of family and consuming a huge amount of food and watching football on TV… and then it also marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season, with the infamous Black Friday happening tomorrow.

However, for me, this is not a holiday about eating too much and going shopping!

For me, this is a time to pause and reflect on the things in my life that are good, in spite of the fact that there may be quite a few things that could be a lot better. There is much to be grateful for!

For example, I'm very grateful for the fact that I still have my reasonably good health, and that I'm able to work from home, pretty much all the time. And while we're at it, I'm grateful that I have a place to call home.

Many years back, while I was still living in Texas and single, I spent several Thanksgivings volunteering at a local homeless shelter, serving donated Thanksgiving food to homeless people.

It's easy to look at the difficulties in our lives and fall into a place of being focused on our hardships, when the truth is that we actually have it pretty good.

Today, I am grateful for the good friends we spent the day with, and for our nice warm house, and even for the fact that I saw our Steem token reach $0.80 at some point during the day, as a nice little “Holiday Bonus!”

I am also thankful to have a community like this where I can do my creative writing, and it's not all "for nothing."

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

How about YOU? Did you celebrate Thanksgiving today? If not, is there any particular "gratitude" related holiday in your country? What are you thankful for, today? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20211125 23:00 PST
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