For This We Give Thanks

For This We Give Thanks


It’s the week after Thanksgiving. The golden brown and juicy bird that graced the center of our table has morphed into stew and fricassee, and the bottom of the leftover pile…turkey salad sandwiches. As we resume our hectic schedules it is easy to get caught in the flurry and forget the grateful pause we took on Thanksgiving Day. But surely, we all have so much to give thanks for throughout the year.
A few days before Thanksgiving we were making a “Thankful Tree”. I had pruned a lilac bush in our yard. We took the branches, placed them in a pot and decorated them with foam cut out leaves on which we wrote the many things we were thankful for. The answers were very predictable; God, Family, Food, Home, Our dog, Toys and teddies, Jobs, Cars etc. We helped the younger kids write down their answers, as they reviewed their small world for things to be grateful for. Our oldest son, who is just learning how to read began to sound out his own answers and formed his own little pile of thankful leaves he had written in his own hand. . The boys waited for Mommy to sew a string on their colorful leaves. As I finally got to our oldest son’s pile, I burst out laughing at the final leaf. On that leaf he had written he was thankful for “Toes”. His reasoning was very logical. He told us, “Without toes, you fall down a lot”.
For a day or so every time I walked by our Thankful Tree I burst out laughing at that wonderful answer. However, the more I pondered it, the more I realized what a blessed and innocent place that was to be, to be grateful for the simplest, most basic things that most people do not even give a moment’s thought to. How often are we dissatisfied with what we have, simply because we don’t recognize all the gifts we’ve already been given? Our eyes are full of longing for more, but blinded to the blessings lying at our feet. As the Christmas season gets into full swing, let’s not forget the day we took to remember all we have to be thankful for. For no matter what your situation right now, if you really count your blessings, you will find many, from your head to your toes.

Kim Mihelich