Thankful to take so much for granted

Each Thanksgiving I fuss too much. Complaining about how long turkey and pies take, worrying something will come out inedible, stress over trying to get all that food to come out hot at the same time, anxious about guest comfort.

I should know better. That’s not the point of Thanksgiving.

We are ensconced in comfort, with so many gifts both large and small and too easily forgotten. Yet if they were gone, we would feel it so starkly. Millions of people suffer the absence of life’s simplest gifts, right now, every day.

So I am thankful for the roof over my head. Warm blankets and soft pillows and a bed.

I am thankful for heat in winter, and air conditioning in summer.

I am thankful for enough water running from a tap (to which I needn’t walk miles each day) to quench the slightest thirst and wash without limit.

I am thankful for a refrigerator full of more food than a body needs. I am thankful to look into a stocked pantry, feel dissatisfied, and foolishly gripe, “There’s nothing to eat.”

I am thankful to live on a street from which the only sounds I hear are the neighbors’ cars and kids. Maybe a dog or two. No gunfire.

I am thankful that rather than being habitually alone, I have cause to crave it.

I am thankful to flinch at the price of gas, to have a reliable car which needs it.

I am thankful for uncensored newspapers, journals, and books to read aplenty. Some towns no longer have newspapers, or never did. In some countries, books are uncommon or too expensive for average people to afford; information heavily censored, or unavailable. We may not avail ourselves, but we are so lucky to have access at all.

I am thankful I can read.

I am thankful for access to life-saving inventions, such as telephones and medical equipment and airplanes.

I am thankful for a closet stocked for all seasons, and a washing machine to clean them.

I am thankful to be employed.

I am thankful for electricity to power this computer and bring light to dark. For natural gas to cook food and heat the room as temperatures drop.

I am so very, very grateful for the luxury of a hot shower.

Most of all I am thankful for each person in my life who says, “I love you.”

Funny thing about gratitude — it evokes happiness. Happy giving-of-thanks day.

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.