We Can’t Afford Not to Be Thankful...

Well, I, for one, know I can’t.  I’ve been blessed on multiple levels. Sometimes we get busy with everyday life and the little letdowns and we forget just how lucky we are.

It’s sad that it always takes a horrific event for us to recognize our good fortunes. Yeah. We just get so bogged down with such mundane issues that we forget what’s important.

Recently the USA bonded to support our East Coast brothers and sisters through Hurricane Sandy. It was a merciless storm that destroyed a lot of property and took lives. Suddenly the worries weighing on my mind didn’t seem so big anymore. 

 

Sandy took me back to Hurricane Ike which devastated my beloved city of Houston. I remember being up all night as he rattled through the sky leaving chaos in numerous corners of the Bayou City. I also remember the relief I felt to see sunlight the next morning. How thankful, truly thankful I was that we’d made it out safe. We hadn’t even experienced damage to the property. We’d been so, so blessed and I was so happy.

But that happiness disappeared as I listened to the radio during the following two weeks without power. Sure I was missing television and the Internet but once again that didn’t weigh on my mind. Why? Because I was reminded how many people hadn’t been blessed. So many people lost their homes and their lives.

There is one image that sticks with me when it comes to Ike. I remember the picture in the paper the next day of a little girl picking up an object that had been tossed from her home by the storm. She stood within a sea of debris and hopefulness.  You know why that picture stays on my mind? It wasn’t because of what she held or how her property looked. But there was one thing, one thing she did in that picture that reminded me how lucky I was.

She was smiling. And with her being able to smile through all she experienced I knew that I was lucky just to be alive. As I live I will never forget that little girl’s face.

 

So when you pull up a chair for Thanksgiving dinner this year, remember you are blessed. It might not be in ways you expect but we’re always blessed.

 

We just have to do better at recognizing it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stacy-Deanne

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Learn more about Stacy-Deanne at www.stacy-deanne.net