FYI: Why I Love Thanksgiving

Next to Christmas, which I love for many reasons, most significantly the birth it celebrates, I love Thanksgiving. What could be better than gathering loved ones around your table for a meal and a prayer? I love the fact that the whole country pauses for one day, stops work of the productive and not-so-productive kind, and thinks about all we have to be grateful for. There is always something to appreciate...just look at nature around you.

I love what Abraham Lincoln said when he proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving during a difficult time in our nation's history:
"It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." October 3, 1863

Our table today is certainly full. I am so thankful for my family, immediate and extended, for our health, and that our basic needs are being met, love being the most basic of all. I know we are fortunate, so fortunate in fact that we have the ability to create a little beauty in our lives above those basic needs.

It's fitting that Thanksgiving ushers in the Christmas holiday. We have a chance to act on our gratitude by doing what we can to help those who might not have as much. There are so many opportunities great and small to make a difference.

Happy Thanksgiving! My "FYI" posts share news or a perspective about something that's been on my mind. You can read them all here.