A day to savor: Reasons for joy and gratitude are all around

After weeks of travel arrangements, last minute changes to seating charts, the scratching off of menu and shopping list items and all of the food prep, Thanksgiving Day has arrived.

If you're reading this, you likely have your coupons collected and arranged. Your hat, coat and scarf are hung by the door in anticipation of hitting the stores for whatever remaining items you have not learned by now to pre-order online to have shipped.

If you are among those who weren't dissuaded from partaking in the NFL over that conflict we agreed not to discuss at the dinner table, your remote and drink coaster are readied next to your favorite chair.

If you are still boycotting, there are probably a series of movies playing on one network or another with silly expressions littered throughout to censor any expletives that earned such films their PG-13 and R ratings in the theaters.

Either way, a healthy dose of holiday sales commercials will interrupt your viewing, so go ahead and have a blanket nearby as a nap will probably result in your missing the final score of the game or the last scene of the movie you selected.

The kids are screaming, the in-laws are bickering and the dog is lying in the doorway between the kitchen and the hallway waiting for another scrap of food to hit the floor.

Ah, the holidays.

If you haven't already, remember to pause for a moment and reflect on whatever company you have, what food will grace your plate, what remains positive in your life this many months into the year and the things from which, at this point in 2016, you were cautiously optimistic about unburdening yourself.

There is a lot going on in the world today and, for that matter, in our community, that might cause us indigestion if we allow it to.

Just for today, let's not.

Be thankful. Be generous. Be forgiving. Check on neighbors, co-workers and friends who might not have a place to eat or company to keep. Remember that, as many differences as we can find amongst ourselves to pick apart or avoid one another over, there is a lot more that unites us.

And while our menus, prayers and traditions might look very different from one home to another, we are all -- hopefully -- finding some comfort and warmth in those around us today.

Thank you to the servicemen and women around the world and the first responders and others on duty today. It's because of you that the rest of us have so much for which we are thankful.

And now, dig in!

Published in Editorials on November 22, 2017 6:20 PM