A thankful heart is a happy heart

Monday, October 10, 2005

My family is one of those families that eats dinner together each and every night, without the TV on. It's actually forbidden. Sometimes my sister or my dad tries to sneak the Simpsons on mute, but my mom always catches us and turns it off. My mom then makes us tell her our favourite moment from the day, one interesting thing we learned, or something like that...Usually at Thanksgiving time, we have to go around the table and say one thing we're really thankful for. Normally we all just say we're thankful for the person on our right so that we can eat the delicious dinner my mom made. After we get in trouble for not being serious, we proceed to all get mushy and tell each other exactly why we're thankful. I'm normally thankful for typical cheesy things that make my mom happy, like family, friends, Jesus, my sister etc.
This Thanksgiving I was reminded of how much I have to be thankful for. My friend Erin came home with me for the holiday and it was wonderful. The whole weekend I got to experience my family thanksgiving through Erin's eyes...apple picking, karaoke, turkey dinner etc. I know she is the world's biggest exaggerater, but she taught me a big lesson.
During our main thanksgiving dinner, the table was set with every delicious Thanksgiving food imaginable, and Erin turned to me just after grace and said, do you guys really do this every holiday? It made me think. I take so much for granted. How often do I just expect my Grandma to make my favourite sweet potatoes, and forget to say thankyou. How often do I forget to be truly thankful? Alot. Thanksgiving almost lost its meaning this year. It became more about a break from school, great food for a starving student, time with friends from home, but it lost its true purpose.
It was such a blessing to have someone there to remind me just how much I have to be grateful for. How lucky I am. So, I'm thankful for Erin, who is a reminder for me to be thankful each and every day!

posted by Rachel Pede @ 10:58 PM   1 comments