In elementary and junior high school, my teachers always gave the same assignment before Thanksgiving: write about what you’re thankful for.
I wrote about being thankful for my parents, for the Twinkie in my lunch, for a (barely) passing grade in math, and for whichever stray dog had taken up residence with us that year.
So I can’t break the habit of making my “thankful” list, but I was so busy the week before Thanksgiving that I didn’t get around to it until Thanksgiving Day itself this year. Of course, now my list is a little more adult: my family, my friends, my health, my home, my church, and most of all my salvation.
No matter how much life has changed from year to year, I remain grateful for my personal blessings.
But I find myself thankful now not so much the big things but for the little things in life.
I’m thankful for my dogs, Buddy and Betsy, that add so much pleasure to my days—despite the work they create.
I have found myself extremely grateful this year for the rain we’ve received! After the awful drought of 2023, I have learned that we can no longer take rain for granted in Mississippi.
My heart broke last year over the dead lawns and flowers and thousands of dead trees that simply withered up in the parched ground. Most of the trees that had to be cut down in our yard alone were old growth pines and oaks that can’t be replaced. So this year I’ve treasured every single drop of water that has fallen, and I’ll never complain about things being too wet again!
I also find myself grateful this year that my two grandsons are both at Ole Miss and doing well. Things can go many ways for kids in college, and “well” isn’t always one of them. But so far, their grades are good, they have friends, they’re involved, and they’re both enjoying fraternity life. And the part for which I’m most thankful — I’m not paying for any of it!
If you’ve always lived in Simpson County, you may take this place for granted, assuming it’s like any other place. But it isn’t. We enjoy our own brand of life here. After living in a number of places when I was younger, I have come to enjoy the slower pace of life in this area, the friends I’ve had for years here, the opportunity to teach in the county’s public schools and get to know the students, many of whom have become my adult friends now. My husband and I have been in Magee for almost 46 years, and I have never regretted our decision to move here in 1979. I’m thankful for a real home.
Coming to the small town of Magee, the smallest place I had ever lived, I first thought that I might not have enough to do to keep me busy. Wrong.
The fact that we are a small town means that everyone can get involved in multiple activities to keep the town productive. So I have plenty to do to keep me busy.
I once thought that at this age I would be rocking on the front porch watching the world go by, sipping Metamucil in OJ and feeling useless,
Not so. I’m glad to still be working here at the paper, teaching a Sunday school class, singing in the choir, doing committee work, exercising, traveling, and going out with friends. Busyness is no small blessing.
And I’m really thankful that all those activities give me an excuse not to clean my house. I’m especially grateful for the wonderful person who comes every other week to clean it for me so that I don’t feel guilty about dirt and dust bunnies!
I’m even trying to feel thankful for the closing of Dirt Cheap, which is certainly going to save me money and time spent digging for treasures on Saturday afternoons. I’m not truely thankful yet, but I’ll get there.
Besides my personal blessings, what I am most thankful for in 2024 is Donald Trump’s win over Kamala Harris in this year’s election. And I am doubly thankful that the light is finally shining on the lunacy of the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration. I am triply thankful that a dark oppression is lifting off this nation as the population begins to realize what these people, their handlers and their political party were doing to us!
It’s already good to see at least a plan for common sense to return to our government. It is reassuring to see that the incoming administration realizes that you can’t open a country’s borders to hoards of unvetter immigrants while still maintaining order and financial solvency—both of which we were losing. It’s good to hear that so many millions of my countrymen don’t want Marxism, communism or a one-world government any more than I do. I am more than relieved that the brakes are being put on the slide into tyranny and chaos that was the goal of the Democratic Party. It will take a while and be a tough battle, but we’re on the right track.
For these and all Thy blessings, Lord, I am truely thankful.
