My Favorite Holiday: What I am Thankful For This Year

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s an American tradition; the day we give thanks for all we have. Thanks for the things, the conditions and the people we may take completely for granted the other 364 days of the year.

What I love most about Thanksgiving is the purity of it.

Notice how we don’t buy each other gifts. You know, the gifts we must make sure are at least as good as the ones we think we will receive. The gifts we cannot afford. The gifts we end up paying for, many months after the holiday has passed.

Notice how it does not matter what our faith or religion is. Anyone can celebrate Thanksgiving. It is the holiday that celebrates diversity and inclusion. Kind of like how our forefathers envisioned us as a country.

Notice how there aren’t any goofy, make-believe characters that we have morphed into being the icon of Thanksgiving. Not even the turkey has taken on any meaning, other than food for our feast. Now I don’t have anything against Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. They are great fairy tales for kids. They just don’t have anything to do with Christianity, nor does spending billions of borrowed dollars to celebrate these characters.

Gratitude carries such amazing power. Gratitude instantly reshapes our over-amped ambitions, competitiveness and rat-race mentality. Gratitude heals many wounds and every relationship, when we give it a chance.

If you want to give someone a gift that will really make a difference — a gift that they will remember and likely keep forever — write them a letter about how much you appreciate them, love them and cherish them. Tell them the specific things they do and who they are that is such a gift to you. It is free, but priceless.

On Thanksgiving day, I am reminded of, and celebrate, those qualities of my life for which I am thankful. I share them with you here so that you will perhaps make a list of your own. Carry them in your heart all year, and all your years to come are guaranteed to be more peaceful, loving and abundant.

I am thankful for:

My God…for without Him in my life and my faith; where would I be today? God is with me, in my heart and mind always. He lives in my soul. I am thankful to live in a country where I can worship God freely!

My health … for without it, nothing else matters much. This is the area of my life I will not take for granted, and I continue to make improvements in this area every year. I find myself taking more vitamins as they find new ones to cure more diseases.(At least they claim!) Need to learn that new dance step and zumba. Still want to fit in a marathon or triathlon! Just have to find more time to get to the gym more frequently in 2010!

My lover, husband and best friend Greg … who inspires me to love like I have never loved a human before. He makes me want to be the best woman I could ever be.

My family, sister, brother, step-sons, granddaughters…they all love me unconditionally. Grandchildren are the most fascinating of all! Thank you GOD for these beautiful creatures!

My beloved parents Doug and Polly…it was a short lived life for them. I was their eldest child of 3 and they did their very best. They say they did without carpet so I could be dressed the best. They made certain I missed out on no activities: tennis lessons, horseback riding camps, bowling lessons, jazz-dance lessons, church choir and girl scouts to name a few of the many opportunities my parents made available to their children.

My friends … you know, the ones who you have a vested interest in since your childhood. There are also the ones you talk to once a year and only receive a Christmas card from but the card still comes each year. These are my friends. Period. No matter what, they are always there and always will be. These people accept me for who I am; my imperfections, flaws, mistakes and all!

My experiences … some extraordinary, some frightful. Some I am happy to have out of the way, so I do not have to go through them in the future. They have given me great empathy, some wisdom, and have fed my infinite curiosity about life and people and places.

My education…as a child I didn’t appreciate this and now I am so grateful and proud of my college education in particular. I never believed enough in myself as a child and I DID IT!! I graduated from college.This is something no one can take from me!

My financial freedom … which gives me so many things. Freedom to pursue my passions: travel the world, quilt beautiful gifts for those who mean so much to me, tennis, skiing, reading, personal development, and business. The peace of mind that my family will never be homeless, forced to take a meaningless job, or be in a position to not take care of each other.

My associates … so much of my freedom and peace of mind comes from the loyalty, gratitude and commitment of the people with whom I work with: colleagues who are leaders, the team of people I work with in my office; corporate leaders and clients. I vow never to take any of them or their efforts for granted, for without them … well, I would just have to start over. That would not be fun!

My country … what extraordinary good fortune for most of us that we live in Canada or the U.S. As selfish, immature and twisted as some of our country’s political, business and religious leaders are, we still are the place where people die every day in an attempt to come here.

People will die this week in pursuit of the level of religious freedom we enjoy; in pursuit of this economic opportunity; in pursuit of our Bill of Rights. They will give their lives attempting to cross our borders or cross an ocean to freedom. They will pay a king’s ransom and risk their lives just for a shot at the life we take for granted.

And yes, 2009 will go down as a year when we all got a reality check. When the Universe (or God or whomever you may believe in) slapped us down for being so lazy, irresponsible and greedy. The year when we maxed out our global Visa card so badly that our credit limit was slashed, trashing our grandiose lifestyle. Our overheated economic growth of the last decade was not due to our productivity or ingenuity, but rather the virtually unlimited credit for everything from cars, to clothes, to twice the house we really could afford. Let it be a lesson to us. We need a more "pay-as-we-go" lifestyle.

If you are thankful for nothing else this day, be thankful you live where you do. Any of us could have easily been born just 5 miles south of the wrong border.

Thanksgiving.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this day was the most celebrated day in our year? Celebrated by us truly giving thanks, saying thank you and meaning thank you.

I do thank each of you for the part you play in my life. Without you, it would be maybe a little or maybe a lot different.

I love just the way my life is.

 Thank you to all who take time to read this.

Debbie