Gratitude

In the run up to Thanksgiving I, like many others, am inclined to reflect on the things I am grateful for.  I'm not so full of sunbeams that I can do a grateful thing each day set but I can at least give voice to what I find meaningful.  I am grateful that I have the luxury of being able to write what I think in an online forum.  It doesn't cost me anything, I have the time to do it and I don't have to worry about the police at my door if I say something controversial.  This ability has become so mainstream to the American way of thinking that it is hard to imagine places that this freedom doesn't exist.  We have heard of these places but really I think it is hard to truly picture it.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity to live in a developing country for a period of time and be able to get a brief taste of what true poverty is.  A place where keys are worn as a status symbol because they indicate that you have something worth enough to go to the trouble of locking it away.  A place where dissident groups are known more for their murderous raids than pithy signs and slogans.  The luxury of having a pantry is hard to comprehend for much of the world.  By luck of birth I get to live in a great place.
I am also lucky to have a great family.  Both the what  I was born into and what has been born to me.  While my childhood was not devoid of drama, it was of a far less sinister quality than many friends.  I am not sorry to have any of my relatives.  Further, where so many people I know  have to struggle with special needs children or infertility, I have been blessed here as well with bright capable children.  I know that they love each other to which sadly seems to be becoming more the exception than the rule in or not so civil society.
I am also grateful to have been employed in one of the more stable professions in this volatile time.  Even our company had to deal with certain new austerities but through it all, I was confident in a job.  How uncommon is that today? 
I look forward to Thanksgiving for many reasons but for the reasons listed here I get to look forward to each and every day.