In some of the posts in this series, I’ve included my own reasons for why I’m thankful to/for someone or something. In today’s post, I have at least one reason for every word I will list. But I am choosing not to include those reasons so that you as the reader can ponder what possible reasons we may have.
12 Emotions I’m Thankful We Can Experience and Express
Confusion
Anger
Sorrow
Delight
Hope
Enlightenment
Admiration
Compassion
Disappointment
Sympathy
Contentment
Curiosity
What about you? Which emotions are you most thankful for?
Politicians – from the small-time to the big-time – have garnered various levels of support, opposition, respect, and hatred throughout American history. Sometimes they have been most famous (or infamous) for their policies and positions; other times, their reputation has been built on their personal life and choices.
You may or may not personally know of or appreciate all the people I will list today. But, politics aside (!), please indulge me while I share the reasons why I’m thankful for them…and feel free to add comments about politicians/leaders you are thankful for.
Ten People Connected to America’s Political Past or Present I’d Like to Thank – and Why (in no particular order)
Governor William Bradford: not just because he’s said to be one of my ancestors, but also because he led his community through years of survival in a challenging environment while never giving up on his faith.
First Lady Laura Bush: thank you for your advocacy of literacy programs and your quiet strength and dignity as a wife and mother.
President Abraham Lincoln: for his bravery, vision for freedom and equality, and how he never lost sight of what he believed in.
President George W. Bush: thank you for leading our country through another hard time of loss, fear, and conflict, and for doing so with strength and confidence.
The “Founding Fathers” as a group: because they cooperated to achieve a common goal – the formation of a place where we could thrive if we would try.
Dr. Condoleezza Rice: thank you for demonstrating how power does not have to corrupt, how age does not have to define ability, and how a woman can be intelligent, beautiful, modest, graceful, witty, wise, and successful all at the same time.
Congressman Don Bacon: thank you for many years of military service to our country, and for remaining a genuinely loving person in the midst of our current political landscape.
Vice President Mike Pence: thank you for living a personal life of integrity and for quietly holding on to and living out your beliefs through your professional actions.
President Ronald Reagan: for his deep personal faith and his longing to stick to his plans simply because he believed they were best for the country he loved.
Dr. Ben Carson: thank you for being a tremendous example of overcoming adversity in respectable ways and using your talents and knowledge to heal, to bless, and to speak truth to a divided society.
It takes a lot of courage to step out and start ones own business. But the people who are willing to do so – and the people who are willing to frequent those businesses – are the people who help to make local communities richer, better places to live. Today, I would like to give a shout out to just some of the small businesses from Omaha and surrounding towns that have brought good to our area.
12 Local Small Businesses I’m Thankful for (in no particular order!)
Hardy Coffee Co. – multiple locations throughout Omaha
Body Haven Massage – near 114th and West Center
The Bookworm – near 90th and West Center
Natural Health Center PC – near 80th and Dodge
The E-creamery – near 50th and Underwood
Blue Oceans Float – near 72nd and Pacific
Stella’s Burgers – on Galvin Road in Bellevue
That Pottery Place – near 78th and Dodge
Spence Counseling Center – near 120th and Q
Hunan Palace – on Gold Coast Road in Papillion
No Name Nutrition – near 72nd and Blondo
Divine Truth Christian Store – near 84th and Harrison in LaVista
Feel free to comment and give a shout out to a small business of your choice – from Omaha or any other community!
Today’s list could be much longer – I have to limit myself if I want to stick to my initial range of 10-12 things… So, I invite YOU to add to the list in the comments section! 🙂
Twelve Inventions from World History to be Thankful for:
Our culture of consumerism has evolved so highly that most businesses and many average people barely give Thanksgiving a passing thought as they move right from Halloween to Christmas. It struck me this past week – when I heard yet another ad for a then-to-be-aired Christmas special on TV (??) – how sad that is.
After all, while I believe that gratitude should be a daily choice and a year-long attitude to which we aspire, at least those who pause to count their blessings and offer a thought on that one day a year are moving in the right direction of refocusing amid life’s craziness.
And life feels crazier than ever.
I thought things would calm down after Election Day ended and all of the political ads stopped entering my home by mail and by screen.
The ads may have stopped, but the angst and anger haven’t missed a beat.
I thought the past week would be a normal one. But what started as “normal” for many across the country started as hellish for many in California.
The shooter may have stopped, but the fearful ripple effect from the boulder he dropped in that pond has spread from sea to shining sea.
I got to thinking: many people celebrate a season of advent to prepare their hearts and minds for Christmas, so why not celebrate a shorter, similar season leading up to Thanksgiving, as a way to prime the pump of observation?
After all, while it is important to be aware of grim realities, a thankful heart is far more likely to seek and hold hope than a fearful heart is. And a heart that looks for the good and the peaceful will help to usher the good and the peaceful into the swirling chaos.
So, starting with this post, I’m going to write a new post every day until Thanksgiving. (The following ones will generally be much shorter than this one!) In each of these Thanksgiving Advent posts, I’m going to list ten to twelve reasons why I am thankful for some thing or topic, or ten to twelve reasons I would say thank you to a person or a group of people.
Today, in honor of the additional holiday, I will start with:
Ten “Thank Yous” to Our Veterans
Thank you for sticking with it during basic training in those moments when it would have been so easy to give up.
Thank you for putting up with MREs and other barely edible rations…and perhaps for pressing on with no food at all…while I have been safe at home, warm and well-fed.
Thank you for working some gruelingly long-shifts and going without (preferred) leave days.
Thank you for taking the night watch in foreign countries so that I could sleep snugly and dreamlessly in my own soft bed.
Thank you for taking orders from some commanders who were power-hungry jerks because you believed duty and love of country are far greater than any leader’s ego.
Thank you for putting yourself in harm’s way to spare the lives of your compatriots, your fellow countrymen, and even the innocent citizens of other countries.
Thank you for enduring enormous mental and emotional stress – things that often lead to the deepest wounds – so that I might have peace of mind.
Thank you for waking up at sunrise or long before – whenever the bugle sounded, the siren wailed, or the alarm rang – to go about vital tasks that no one on the outside will ever know you have done for us.
Thank you for taking bullets, shrapnel, and every other physical infliction or pain you’ve ever experienced…to make those around you safer for one more day.
Thank you for doing all this and more – and going for days, weeks, months, or years without being thanked for it. It was not in vain.
Will you agree to join me in this shorter advent journey by doing one or more of the following?
Read each new post and stop to ponder what you personally have to feel grateful for in relation to that day’s topic?
Leave a comment for myself and other readers to consider – things on that day’s list that are most important to you or other things you’d add to that day’s list?
Carry those thoughts of thankfulness and goodness with you throughout your day, inviting them to radiate from you to improve your living and working environments?
Share (links to) posts you feel are timely with your friends via social media, email, text, or word-of-mouth?
So what about the foundation of a person’s life and how it serves to guide his or her identity?
In a recent writing assignment, a student of mine observed that when a political leader tries to lead people without possessing certain fundamental moral qualities such as honesty and others-centered responsibility, that leader’s life is a little bit like a shirt with buttons in mismatched button holes, all the way from the bottom of the shirt to the top.
It was an apt thought as I further pondered this topic of identity and the foundation/applied side of it. Thinking about not only political leaders – but all types of people in general – a life without a solid moral compass is a little like a house with a slanted foundation or a dress shirt with an askew buttoning job.
The main difference, perhaps, is that many political leaders and other celebrities live lives that are far more often on wide public display. The rest of us generally display our flaws and weaknesses to a considerably smaller crowd.
Having a solid foundation gives us a level place on which to build all of the other applications of our identity: the choices we will make; the things we will decide to invest money, time, and energy into; the direction we will veer at each fork in life’s road. But if our shirt gets buttoned in the wrong hole from the very beginning, we are far more likely to get off on the wrong foot or set off in the wrong direction – and stay there for most of our subsequent days.
And yet…analogies are rarely perfect…
In this case, though some things can’t be undone, learning how to lay a new foundation and rebutton the shirt correctly some years down the road gives us a chance to start fresh. In other words, by some miraculous grace and much discipline, the mind can be transformed. Renewed.
