Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again, where we saddle up to the rarely used dining room table and stuff our faces with traditional Thanksgiving victuals as we chat it up with relatives we sometimes don't see too often. This happens to be my favorite holiday, followed very closely by Christmas. Thanksgiving just has a certain warmth to it, a certain feel to it that just makes you feel good. But this Thanksgiving had a different feel to it; not a bad one, just different.
I was at a Thanksgiving eve service at my church, sitting in the choir loft listening to the pastor give his Thanksgiving message. We at our church are blessed with a pastor who has a gift of storytelling and speaking, making his messages interesting and easy to stay with. During the message however, something he said sparked memories of a Thanksgiving not long past. Back in 2001, I lived in California for a while, and had some really difficult but interesting and growing experiences during my time there. I started thinking about that Thanksgiving, how my brother and I, in the middle of our normal 16 or 17 hour work day, went to some cheap "restaurant" Denny's type place for a lavish Thanksgiving feast. Now that's what I call sarcasm, volume 20. (C'mon people, you won't get this humor anywhere. Just ask and I'll explain that one if you don't get it.) With probably around 20 bucks, we had a feast fit for a king. Well, his dog maybe. No no, the servant's dog. Yeah, that's about right. There were so many other things going completely wrong as well which I won't completely get into, but very little if any was going right at that point. And as I sat there in my chair, in the choir loft of my church, thinking about how crappy it was 4 years ago, I thought about how much had changed and how far I had come, and how much I truly had to be thankful for; not only in crappy times, but a thousand fold now.
I became overwhelmed with joy as the pastor wrapped up his message. Later on in the night, someone asked me why I was smiling so much, and I started to tell them that I was thinking about my Thanksgiving when I was in California, and I was thinking about Thanksgiving now and I was just filled with so much joy and I... That's when I started to cry and had to walk away. She followed me and I finished my sentence:

"I just have so much to be thankful for." And I started to tear up again as she gave me a comforting hug there in the warm church.

I finished crying on my way home, laughing nearly half the drive because I just had so much to thank God for, so much to appreciate, and it hit me all at once. What a joy it was though! I have a place to live, I have a job that pays pretty well. I have parents who love me. I have a dog who is all better now. I have my life that has nearly slipped from my hands a few times. I have things I love to do, and talents I have been blessed with (one of which isn't writing obviously. Haha.) I have a church that appreciates what I do. I have life, I have love! I have Thanksgiving my friends, and overwhelming amount of it.

Please leave a comment and be thankful for something, it shouldn't be hard.