Giving Thanks

Soapbox Time!

Thanksgiving Day is a great day of thought for me. I always find myself sitting to actively think of the many things that I am thankful. I use that as a way to help keep life in perspective. It's far too easy to get caught up chasing after the things that you want, and being sidetracked by life's small disappointments. It's easy to forget just how blessed/fortunate most of us truly are.

The fact that the tradition on this holiday is to eat to excess, is a sign of how fortunate the general population happens to be. Take a moment to remember that far too many people in this country don't even have enough to have more than one meal a day, before you decide to consume excessively. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the spoils of your labor. If you've worked hard, you deserve to enjoy yourself. But remember, there are a lot of hardworking homeless people, who just had an incident or two of bad luck that forced them to lose their homes.

It's those people that I hope we all keep in mind. There are families of nice, kind, polite and friendly people who just happen to have lost their homes, and now they've become invisible. What do I mean by invisible? When you walk down the street, and you lower your head to avoid those people, or when at an intersection and someone approaches, looking for help, and you turn your head as if you don't see them?? That's what I mean. It's really easy and convenient to simply brand every homeless person that you see as a drunk or lazy vagrant, when you know that isn't true.

I just ask that you use today to think about others. The "giving" part of this holiday is such am emotional joy. Start small: set up a box in your office to collect toiletries to give to a local shelter. As a personal endorsement, on two occasions I have been fortunate enough to have gone to a local hospital on Cmas Day to hand out toys to kids, and no Cmas gift that I have ever been given made me feel better than those "thank you's." Not only were the children appreciative, it was the looks from their parents, knowing that someone was nice enough to think about bringing joy to their particular child. Try it...it'll take maybe an hour out of your Cmas Day, but will touch you forever. And it costs you nothing but time.

I'm a firm believer in karma. So, not only do I try to do things for others because it makes me feel good, I like to think that by doing something nice for someone else, it'll encourage them to do the same, and to keep that cycle going forward.

Have a wonderful and thoughtful Thanksgiving. Ok...the soapbox is free!