This is the time of the year when friends and family gather to give thanks for blessings seen and unseen. There are blessings of health and shelter and food that many enjoy and too many do not. But for those who are so blessed, giving thanks can and should be just the first step – a prelude before taking some kind of action to share those blessings.

There are those who enjoy the blessings of family, the blessings of love, the blessings of friendship and the blessings of companionship. And again, there are many for whom these blessings are unknown. Again, for those who are so blessed it is time to remember those blessings and to find ways to share them with those who are not so blessed.

And then, of course, there are the blessings that we don’t know about. The illness that never occurred, the accident that was avoided without our ever being aware of the danger – the avoidance of the loss of a job, home or other creature comforts because some unknown and unseen power shielded us from such calamities. And for those of us who have received the gift of such blessings, we can share them by comforting and caring those who have not been blessed in such a fashion.

In these days and times of strife and turmoil, when the border between fake and real is easily obscured and hard to find, it is best to take a moment of pause from the resilient resistance and the resistant resilience in order to remember the blessings that we enjoy and the blessings that we should share. For just as the sunshine that warms our very souls can be hidden by the sudden appearance of obscuring clouds, so can each and every blessing that we enjoy vanish for reasons that we will never completely comprehend.

This Thanksgiving celebration is important because despite the turmoil and turbulence that seems to accompany us all every step of every day, of all the blessings that we enjoy and can share, the blessing of hope is of the greatest value. Hope, along with its constant companion Faith, gives us the strength and the power to embrace the challenges of today so that we can make the promises of tomorrow come true.

And so….we can give thanks every day for friendship and companionship and love and family.

And personally, I give thanks for YOU, the readers of Point of View who are in every corner of this world – You inspire me and I appreciate you – Every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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