Originally, this was going to be an "If you woke up this morning..." blog. Then I realized:
1) More likely than not, if you didn't wake up this morning you probably wouldn't be reading this.
2) My first blog shouldn't be telling people what to do, that's kind of a turn off, isn't it?
3) Practice what you preach.
So, here's my new blog idea: "I woke up this morning..."
Thank you, God, for waking me up this morning.
Thank you, past present and future military service people, for keeping me safe while I slept, sleep, and will sleep.
Thank you to my parents (and step parent) for creating this life that is me, and for the support that has led me to love and respect the values of family.
Thank you to family: Siblings, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, etc. The people that make life fun growing up, and the people who make home someplace to come back and visit.
Thank you to friends who, even over long distances, give me a reason to keep going when life just "don't make sense."
Thank you to my feeble mind for stopping me before that last one turned into a country song. And for convincing me that Matchbox 20 isn't really country...even in the song "If You're Gone," even though it feels like it sometimes.
Thank you, YouTube, for making Matchbox 20 - If You're Gone readily available when I get on tangents like this.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we tend to be thankful for things like our jobs, living in America, family, togetherness, and the like. Where turkey and cranberry sauce can smudge away our daily stresses to make way for Black Friday (oh no, I guess I mean "gray Thursday" now? Eeesh, maybe Thanksgiving isn't so family centered as I remember it...I mean somebody has to work to open stores at 8pm Thursday), and before you know it we're rolling into New Years (where we regret our turkey eating and resolve to make better choices next year).
But are we ONLY thankful for these things we take for granted on Thanksgiving? Do we really need a holiday to celebrate that? The Pilgrims came over here as radicals, right? I mean, they were the rebels, the "I don't want to follow the laws of the king, let's go start our own country where we can do whatever we want." Well, their ancestors were the ones who discovered England, right? The Pilgrims came over here and decided that the Native Americans would be good for educational purposes but once their tenure is up, we're going to destroy them, uproot and remove them from our "free" society. We'll learn from them and then use their own tactics against them. So when we sit down to dinner, celebrating the union between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, we use the turkey and cranberry sauce to smudge away the part where lifestyles were nearly destroyed.
But, maybe we need that? Maybe we need that day to count our blessings. Maybe some things in life are just that rough that we need to escape. Maybe every good thing comes from a bad back story? Or maybe it's only bad if you choose to think of it that way.
When the Thanksgiving celebration is over, it's Christmas mode all the way. Radio stations tend to convert to Christmas music, if they haven't already. Then we get into Joy, Merriment, and so on and so forth.
So what am I saying? I don't really know, and by now you've probably stopped caring. We'll sum it up with Happy Thanksgiving, but I also plea that you don't forget the things you're thankful for every day. If that's too hard, try for every day during the holiday season. Have a reason to be joyful and merry. And Thankful.
But overall...
Thank YOU for waking up this morning and reading this blog.
