Most often in speaking about Thanksgiving we talk about what we are thankful for.
And thankful for often translates into thankful for things.
We are thankful for food and for homes and for the freedoms we enjoy.
We are thankful for work to do and for the opportunities we have.
I understand all that.
I am thankful for all that, and more.
But thinking and speaking about Thanksgiving in that way also leaves me a bit unsettled.
What if you do not have enough food?
What if you don’t have a safe and secure and warm place to live?
What if you are estranged from you family and sit down at your Thanksgiving dinner alone?
Does that temper your gratitude or mean that you are not to be thankful?
Is being thankful really about or solely about things?
So, what about this…
What if we changed the preposition we used in thinking and talking about Thanksgiving?
What if we quit using for and instead used to?
Instead of thankful for…
Thankful to…
Would that help us focus more on people and and less on things?
Or maybe provide us with a slightly different way to see and to acknowledge all those around us who add something, large or small, to our lives.
I am thankful for my family.
But what if I was thankful to my family.
And, to the people who will work all night to plow the snow so I can make it home safely tomorrow.
And, to the people who stock the shelves and check me out at the grocery store so we have food to eat today…and tomorrow.
And, to the man who came out an pumped my gas at the service station this morning and who wished me a Happy Thanksgiving.
In addition to what you are thankful for, who might you be thankful to this Thanksgiving?
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