Thanksgiving 2017
What are you thankful for on this Thanksgiving in 2017? Everything seems to be so terrible when the news reports things. When I speak to audiences, I gently remind people that if you look with negative glasses (TV), everything looks dark and gloomy. But if you look with a perspective of abundance and blessing, things actually look pretty darned good!
What are you thankful for?
I’m thankful that…
- I woke up alive and uninjured this morning. People in war-torn Syria didn’t.
- I have my health. People will lose loved ones today to cancer.
- I have people who love me and care about me when I travel to some crazy places. I went to school with people who had parents that didn’t care one bit.
- I have a successful speaking business.
- I have a successful publishing business.
- I live in a country where I’m free to do just about whatever I want. People in North Korea would be executed for the freedoms I enjoy.
- I have a new-ish Toyota Tacoma. People in backwoods Columbia have one bicycle for an entire village.
- I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. See the above picture.
- My Grandfather is still alive at 90 years old. He was in the WWII Japanese interment camps. I’m thankful I didn’t have to go through that, but I’m thankful for the strength he taught me from the experience.
- I have both of my parents. My girlfriend lost her mother decades ago. Many my age don’t have one or both parents.
- I actually know my parents. Many who have been adopted or orphaned have no idea.
- I have a powerful computer that enables me to reach out to the world. The Massai village I visited in Tanzania last year uses torches for light at night.
- We have a stable government that we can disagree with, dislike, but is still one of the best deals on Earth. I remind myself to try the government in Sudan when I think mine is bad.
- I have a warm, comfortable place to live. I saw people who live in rusted out corrugated steel shacks in Guatemala trying to make a living by selling pineapples on the side of the road.
- I’ve been gifted with the friendships in the Teton Photography Group.
- I have friends from junior high and high school that care about what I’m up to. I know those who were terribly tormented in middle school and are still struggling to forgive and walk beyond.
- I have a brother, sister-in-law, nephews, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and a whole gaggle of people who care about me. People trying to escape Ethiopia to Saudia Arabia have nothing but death in their desert.
- We have a world given to us by Him, who blesses us with everything we have.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!