A Daily Thanksgiving

I sit alone, undisturbed. Solitude. A holiday dinner for one. Reflecting on the years gone by and in particular the one most recent. The thanks I should give with my premeal prayer. How boorish. Thanks but once a year? Should I not be thankful year round? Yet, I lower myself to meld with tradition. The tangible; the indefinable.

My relationship with my God has been tumultuous to say the least. My Creator, yet I challenge Him as He tests me. “Why, the pain and suffering of the world”, I shout? “Why, can you not trust in Me”, He whispers? Yet, He brings me comfort in time of need.

My daughter. The apple of my eye. A worn out cliché, but the only way I can describe her. She has grown into a mature, responsible young woman. When she was sixteen, she felt that I didn’t really know a lot. At twenty-four, she shows up at my work place to tell me about her latest love or calls me at night to ask me about the intricacies of the preparation of a meatloaf.

My son, a strapping young lad approaching his late teens, towers above me. A cocky dude with a temperament and an impatience much like his grandpa and dad, ex-cops, for the frail indecisive individual. He secretly eagerly awaits, if dad is still around, the promise I made him to celebrate his twenty-first birthday with my knocking him on his ass. The act as a right of passage to instill in him a sense of humility to carry him through life. He never read page three on the Handbook of Life. Knowing I would need some form of advantage, I didn’t teach him everything.

I met new friends along the way; I lost a few. Each unique in their own way. Each leaving an indelible mark on my soul. Certainly, I have regrets and in retrospect concede that I made some Neanderthalic blunders, but dwelling on the past is futile.

The brave men and women who risk their lives on a daily basis. Military, police, firefighters and paramedics. While they grumble about their duties, they never shirk the responsibilities.

Another successful surgery. No problems at the annual physical. I can breathe, see, walk, talk and think. My psychotic cat still meets me at the door.

The Truth Is…..I give thanks each and every day. Amen

Thoughts Revisited

On this Veteran's day, I tried to think of the words to express my gratitude to the brave men and women who have gone into harms way, voluntarily or involuntarily, when the Country called. I couldn't come up with any that would seem genuine or sincere. You can't express it.

So, please reread a previous post from June 2006: " Thoughts of A Time Past"

http://dansblogoftruth.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_archive.html