Giving Thanks in 2025

 

Giving Thanks and Being Grateful  

At this time of year, we take a moment to give thanks. A thanks that is best exemplified by being surrounded by family and/or friends during a huge feast. It can be noisy and fun, full of love and togetherness. Also, if all goes well, it can be a good day of festive activities. However, to ensure it goes off without a hitch, a great deal of planning has gone into preparing for this day of Thanksgiving. 

A cornucopia of food has been gathered from the farm field, grocery stores, or the nearest neighborhood corner grocer. This is the day we bring out our best. Most dishes, ranging from side vegetables to meats, are crafted using the finest and freshest ingredients available. Even our favorite desserts, such as pies and cakes, are prepared from scratch. If coffee is served, it is either brewed using fresh ground beans or your favorite flavor from a Keurig cup. If there is a Cappuccino Machine, all the better! If libations are offered, they usually come from the best that any top shelf has to offer. After all, it is the occasion to make merry and to give thanks. Tables are set with the best dinnerware we have on hand. Some dinners are grand affairs, some are simple and humble, while others fall somewhere in between. But it all means the same—a celebration of love and thanks.

Ah, but there is more to this than giving meager ‘thanks’ for the blessings of plenty. It isn’t said out loud, but the feeling surrounds us like a soft blanket. And that is ‘giving thanks’ for so much more.

It’s the thanks for living one more day. It’s the thanks for seeing a smile sent our way and meant just for us alone. It’s the thanks for hearing a baby’s laughter and the giggle of teenage girls or the rambunctiousness of boys roughhousing in the next room. It’s the sound of a neighbor’s cheerful greeting or the wave of a passerby. It’s the thanks for a clear blue sky on a crisp autumn day, or the snow on the ground that crunches under our feet as we walk from outside into a warm home. It’s the thanks for the kindness of strangers. It’s the thanks for having someone who cares, or a shoulder to cry on. It’s the thanks for living a life well lived, and hopefully, one with few to no regrets. It’s the thanks for knowing we’ve done our best at whatever we’ve tried to do. It’s the thanks for knowing our hearts are in the right place—most of the time. It’s the thanks for the ability to give back whenever we can. It’s the thanks for feeling safe and secure, especially when we’re alone or wherever we are at the moment. It’s the thanks for having a place to call ‘home’, however temporary. At the end of the day, it’s the thanks for the wonder of it all. It’s the humble gratitude for the blessings we have been given, but often fail to see in our busy, day-to-day lives.

A thanks that taps us on the shoulder and says, “Remember me?”  

I’m sure there is so much more to be thankful for that was left out in this post. But, I think you get the idea. For me, the most important thing is being humble in our gratefulness, recognizing that all we have been given in love is the best remembrance on this Thanksgiving Day.

So on this special day of thanks, I would like to simply say, “Thank you for your support.” Thank you for reading what I have shared in my blog posts and in books. I genuinely hope they have been a source of inspiration and reflection for you. Thank you for taking the time. I am truly grateful. 

And may many, many blessings be yours forever and always.

From my table to yours, “Happy Thanksgiving!”    

~DaMarie

Photo Courtesy of Mikki Seifu