Plenty To Be Thankful For

By Jen Sieve-Hicks

Last week, our youngest came home from preschool with a thankfulness basket. It was a woven construction paper basket filled with cut-out magazine photos of the things she is thankful for. Food figures prominently in her basket, as do family (as depicted by a much better-looking family with matching sweaters) and her blanket.
Over the years, our kids have brought home various crafts and letters interpreting the theme of thankfulness. I have saved some of them because they are either too sincere or too funny to part with. Tucked in a plastic tote under my bed is the thankfulness prayer my son wrote with the help of his preschool teacher four years ago. It was only a few weeks after my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and our son wrote that he was thankful for the doctors and nurses who were going to heal his grandma. I have also saved a construction paper cornucopia filled with pictures of kitties and dogs – the things our oldest daughter was most thankful for when she was 3 or 4 years old.
It is a reminder that you are never too young or too old to take stock of what matters.
I know who I am thankful for: Robb; Claire; Aidan; Frannie; my folks and parents-in-law; and my sisters, brothers-in-law and their families.
My sincerest hope is that they are thankful for me too.
Thanksgiving is a good time to remember that family extends beyond our homes and dinner tables. We are members of the human family – we are related to each other through our mutual need to give love and to be loved.
For some of us, this season is not about abundance but scarcity. Some of us are lonely and have no one with whom to celebrate. There are many more of our extended family who face food insecurity. And every day many more struggle with addiction, disease, mental illness, debt or grief – emotional weights that can make it hard to see the good in life.
Some of us are in positions to offer help to our extended human family. Christmas and holiday food drives, toy collections and other charitable causes give us ample opportunity to extend love and compassion. You should have no trouble finding ways to make members of your extended human family thankful for you.
And that’s a pretty good feeling too.
Happy Thanksgiving!