It seems silly to say this Thanksgiving will be like no other we’ve ever experience, unless you are 100 years old and were in greater Boston during the Pandemic of 1919.  No one receiving this is 100 years old, although some of us desire to reach that milestone.

Needless to say, this Thanksgiving promises to be unique; it will be smaller in number, more intimate, with discourse about who we miss and who is missing.  We are likely to be more thoughtful, introspective, appreciative, kinder and caring.  Some of us will be happy to be alive and others will be simply happy.  Most of us will reach out to loved ones in faraway places (or around the corner) just to let them know they’re in our hearts.  And others will miss a day without Zoom and will have a Zoom Thanksgiving. And many of us will drive many miles in order to wave at loved ones from the sidewalk.  This Thanksgiving will be like no other . . .

This will not be a Thanksgiving that will be taken for granted.  It will, in fact, serve as a “gentle reminder” that we are all truly blessed.  We are alive – and living.  We are loved – and loving.  We are served – and serving.  We are – and we are.  It will be difficult on this Thanksgiving, not to be thankful.  It is will be difficult not think of ourselves as lucky or fortunate or divinely protected.

This Thanksgiving, we will be thankful; it will be difficult to be otherwise.

Words cannot express all the things for which I am thankful – suffice it to say that life has blessed me beyond what any single human-being deserves. My task is to try to deserve it every single second of every single minute of every single day.

This Thanksgiving, there is no need to count our blessings since our blessings will be too numerous to count.  Don’t waste a moment counting.  Spent every moment in gratitude.  A Thanksgiving like no other.

Your loving servant,
James