A Thanksgiving Reflection

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday because it is a time for me to reflect on all the things that I am thankful for and it is a time to tell all of those people that I am thankful to have in my life.....just that.

We have come a long way since last Thanksgiving when we were bundled up in coats and boots heading to our sister church in Somerset to help serve people at what had become our family Thanksgiving tradition. For 11 years we have gone into St. Pauls' United Church of Christ and helped the Salvation Army serve not only homeless people but people who have fallen on hard times and people who just don't want to be alone.

Jacob was 3 when we started helping the Salvation Army and boy has he come a long way. The first year we did it, Jake was more of the entertainment than really very helpful. He was an adorable blue eyed, very blond haired little boy who walked from table to table talking to all of the little old couples, families with children, and the occasional person who had arrived alone because they had no one else to share the day with. Now don't get me wrong...he did occasionally go to the dessert table and wrangle a piece of pumpkin pie back to the little old man who had asked for a piece, but overall....he was our talker. He would just sit there and talk to them about whatever popped into his head....of course, at that stage of his life, a lot of the conversation revolved around Buzz Lightyear and Woody!

As the years went on, he progressed to helping seat people, to getting their meals for them and then eventually he settled on helping his dad at the door. They would take peoples coats when they arrived, hang them up, and then retrieve them when they left. Jake and Bob have walked more than their fair share of little old ladies to their cars in the snow! :-) This is a tradition that we are very sorry to give up this year. It almost seems like it isn't even Thanksgiving because we are not trudging through snow to do something that started out as a way to help people but ended up enriching our lives more than we ever thought possible; when you put yourself out there for other people, what you get back in return is far greater than what you can ever give out.

As the years went by, we saw new people for us to get to know, we saw regular customers who wanted a moment of our time to reminisce, and we saw the tragedy of loved ones who didn't make it another year. Nothing was sadder than when a man or woman would come in for 3 years straight with their spouse of 50 years only to see the day arrive when one of them came in alone. It is those moments that make you thankful for the many blessings you have been given.

So as Thanksgiving comes to an end, I want to take the time to thank all of you who are a part of my life...whether it be a family member, a friend, a loved one, someone I have only recently met, someone I have known for years, someone I see or talk to all the time, someone who is sporadically in my life, and even those of you who are no longer active in my life. Thank you each and everyone for permanently leaving your fingerprints on my life because without each and everyone of you....I would not be who I am today.

So take today to value those in your life and remember those no longer in your life. Because we are just the sum of our relationships...both good and bad....and without those people, we could never become all we were meant to be.

I love you all very much and today is the best day to let you know that because you are what I am thankful for.