What We Are Thankful For

A few weeks ago, I read someone referring to the butcher’s visit as “the day they give back all we have given them.” That euphemism didn’t really set right with me, but has been occupying a niche in the back of my mind. And as I start prepping our Thanksgiving dinner and meals for family who will be here for a long weekend, that phrase returned.

On reflection, I think it really is a perfect description. Not because the sheep want to be seen as philanthropists. I doubt they have a highly developed sense of the future beyond sunrise and sunset, and meals appearing on schedule. But rather because it is a reminder that we too must eventually return all that is given to us. We can have and hold, love and cherish. But we cannot keep anything forever. So on this Thanksgiving, I am remembering what I am thankful for.

This has been yet another tough year financially and the coming year might be more of the same. But we have not found the blessings in our life diminished so much as we have been reminded repeatedly that the best things in life are not things. We are surrounded by family and friends we cherish, and that is the bedrock of happiness. We have found some new opportunities to try to help and serve others. Little else brings as much pleasure or meaning to a day. But that one little euphemism also reminds me to be happy that we have the following generations to whom we can pass forward the goodness currently entrusted to us. A little land and some stuff. But we also have the opportunity to return love, teachings, a lightly-used environment, maybe even a slightly improved nation and society if we work at it. So this year, let’s not just count our blessings, but think of how we can share them both now and in the future, when we too return “all we were given.”

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