Thanksgiving 2017

Thankful For All Things

This Thanksgiving is no different for me than most of the others in recent years. It is not “exceptional.” And for that, I am thankful.

You see, for many years I had to stop and question what it was I was thankful for on this holiday. To the outside observer it looked like my life was great. I had a great career and was making all the money I needed. In America, what more could a person ask for, right?

It Isn’t The Money That Matters

Although I was making good money and commanding large fees as an attorney, I was missing something. I didn’t even realize it. I was successful in my career but felt like a failure in my personal life.

One day, through a series of absolutely miserable events, it came to me that I needed to look at life differently. I needed to recognize that most of what happened in my life was not happening “to” me. It was just happening. It was happening because of choices I made.

Information is Power

This realization does not come easily. It was then, through long-needed introspection and study that I began to change my perspective. I spent a great deal of time reading philosophy and psychology books. I took what I needed and discarded the rest. I studied various religions. It all went into a large reserve of information I was storing.

All of that changed me. I hope for the better. It helped me to realize a lot of things. One of them is that things that happen to us are neither good not bad. We make them good or bad based on how we react to them.

I have survived cancer twice. Cancer is simply something that happens to some of us. Why one person gets it and another does not, should not matter. Some people get it while some don’t.

It should never be thought of as a punishment visited upon a person as an act of a vengeful God. It is just part of the price of living; just like any other disease.

Be Thankful You Are Alive

So on this Thanksgiving of 2017 be thankful for all things. You are alive. You have the gift of this day. What you do with it, how you use it, what you make of it is up to you.

My goal everyday is to get as much pleasure and fun out of that day as I can. I am thankful you have read this blog post.