I've always admired those people who write a "gratitude list" for Thanksgiving or the people who post a new "thankful" entry each day in November on their Facebook pages. They manage to share their deepest feelings about those they cherish, about the memories they hold dear, about the blessings in their lives.
So, why can't I do that?
I'll admit, I've grown a little jaded over the last decade. Maybe it's because I spend so much of my day writing and reading about the difficulties in life - the crime, the traffic accidents, the businesses that fail and the political divide we feel even in our corner of North Georgia. Some days, I go home feeling like I've taken a beating.
I try to remind myself, though, that "news" is what's considered out of the ordinary. I learned that lesson from the late newspaper and radio man Ted Oglesby, who offered those words of comfort years ago when I was lamenting about the nature of the business. If what he said is true - and I believe it is - then the crime and the hate and the tragedies are newsworthy because they aren't the norm for most of us.
True, we all have sorrow in our lives, but for the most part, we are blessed.
A couple of weeks ago, Joe Payton, my pastor at Riverbend Church in Gainesville, reminded us from the pulpit that we, as Christ followers, should be deliberately thankful every day, not just on Thanksgiving Day. I've been trying to remember his words - and act on them - even though my human nature has made me more than a tad cynical.
With all of that said, for the first time, I'm putting my thankful list in writing. It's nothing fancy because honestly, I'm not a very fancy gal. I've determined the simple things in my life make me the most thankful. It's also a short list, not because I have little for which to be thankful, but because I'm going to add to it through the season. And, also because, I try not to bore readers with too much "stuff."
B.J.'s 2019 Thanksgiving List (in random order)
- The first cup of coffee in the morning. (And the fact that the boss buys us all the coffee we want at Jacobs Media)
- A text from my mother, telling me not to forget to watch 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving'
- My 15-year-old pup Brownie, who approaches me at 9 every night to remind me it's bedtime
- Sunday night Williams-White-Grindle dinners at the local Mexican restaurant
- A request from my youngest daughter for a recipe
- Spending time with a group of high school seniors at Ivester Early College every month (even though I have no clue what I'm doing)
- Small towns like Gillsville and Talmo
- Remembering in certain applicable situations that my Daddy used crazy words like 'fiddle-fart'
- Going to the UGA-Notre Dame football game with my oldest daughter because she didn't want to waste a ticket on someone who doesn't really love the Dawgs
- When my husband brings me a new variety of apple or peach from Jaemor just so I can taste what's new
- The latest issue of Southern Living magazine in my mailbox
- Glimpsing a deer wandering through the woods in my back yard
- Watching my family laugh at the same old tired lines in Home Alone every Christmas
- Saving all of my $1 bills and then trading them in for a $100 bill at the bank
- Hugs from little kids and old people
"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." Psalm 118:1
