Thanksgiving. Little known fact: Some historians have argued the holiday was started when the Pilgrims got together to give thanks for their turkey defrosting in time. Their microwave was on the fritz, and there was great concern they wouldn’t be able to pry loose the little bag of frozen giblets. (Boy, do I know that feeling!)
But too often we forget it’s not just the big things (health, frozen giblets, employment, Powerball, that our children haven’t been incarcerated for Bitcoin scams) that we need to give thanks for. No, sometimes it’s the seemingly inconsequential things that we often take for granted, and forget deserves our thanks, too.
So, this week I’m taking a little time to give thanks for a few things that don’t always register on the big chart, but that I should show gratitude for all the same:
• I’m thankful for my dog. And I have to remind myself of that sometimes. Because she sheds more hair than, frankly, she has on her body. Which could only mean that she is collecting other dogs’ hair, bringing it home and scattering it around the house in some kind of weird K-9 ritual. But my daughter has been playing videos of dog owners catching their animals doing pretty naughty things and videotaping it. (Real examples: “Lenny, did you eat the entire sofa down to the springs?” or “Petunia, did you poop in the refrigerator AGAIN?”) Yowza! My dog sniffs too much on walks and it makes me cranky. Whoop-de-doo! Sometimes you don’t know how lucky you are until your kid shows you a video of a guy screaming, “Jojo, didn’t I tell you to put the parking brake on after you took the car out?!? I’m pretty sure I told you to put the parking brake on! Bad, bad boy!!!”
• I’m thankful that elections don’t happen every year. Could you imagine that? We can barely handle them every two or four years as it is. Not to mention the fact that our poor, beloved state wouldn’t be able to take the shame and humiliation, seeing as how bad we are at sampling counting votes. There are third world dictatorships calling to ask if we want help fixing our election process. (Wait a minute, we want our kids to excel in math, yet every time WE count votes we get a different answer!?!)
• I’m thankful my kid is doing pretty well in math.
• I’m thankful for the little hummingbird who buzzes my front porch and sips from the firespike growing along the fence. I don’t know why the little buggers bring me such joy. Maybe it’s because their wings move like my family talks: constant, and so fast that you can’t even see our lips move. Whatever it is, I’m grateful for them.
• Most of all, I guess I’m thankful that even in the craziest of times, and even when things get really nutty, I can still find a way to see through the clutter, the chaff and the dog hair to still find something to be hopeful and optimistic and even thankful for. Just like the Pilgrims, and that darn bird, which almost didn’t defrost in time.