What is Thanksgiving to me really?

We all pass around the emails of friendship and love and of those we don't want to lose this year. Without the email have you really TOLD them that? Welcome to my Thanksgiving. It will never mean the same to me or my family.

Ten yrs ago, Thanksgiving meant an early morning phone call that I knew was coming but didn't want to face. A call from a heart-wrenched sister, having watched our mom collapse in a heap in the hospital hall as they heard the news that they were too late and Dad was gone. A call that shocked me because I hadn't wanted to believe that the impression I received the day before had come true. Thankful for that impression so that I could be there for my mom and continue in a dazed shock. Thankful that in-laws were actually at my house to be with my kids while I went to the hospital for the day to be with my family. Thankful for a father who lived a long and full life and who was now out of the immense pain he'd been suffering. Thankful I didn't have to go through it alone.

Thankful that there is a grave in Salt Lake that I faithfully took my mother to visit, but that I can't bear to visit anymore. Thankful that my parents know that and that I can feel them with me without the need for a physical monument. Thankful for wonderful neighbors, supportive friends - past, present, and waffling - and for family far and near. Grateful for a warm bed, modern convienences, money to buy them and jobs that bless me with that money. Thankful for home and family, fights and all. Grateful to Christ for his sacrifice for me and what his gospel means in my life and when I let it, the peace it brings. Grateful that I still live in a country that is FREE and that there are those who are still willing to fight for that freedom, bless you.

Weird as it may be.... Grateful I guess to be ME. With all my pity and woe is me's, I would rather be me than any other that I see. Life is hard enough with my own problems, I don't need anyone else's, but I'll glady and gratefully help carry their burden to lighten my own.