Did you know...? Something to be thankful for!

We all have something to be thankful for.

2020 has been a year of disappointments. First there was our Easter celebrations that were canceled, then came spring with the area schools spring sports along with all the summer celebrations that were either canceled or modified all in order to keep the COVOD-19 pandemic at bay.

Here we are at Thanksgiving, you have all made decisions to go ahead and celebrate with your family or you have made the decision not to.

No matter how you are celebrating, I would like to ask you all to take a deep breath, see the joy this year has brought you. Have you found a new author that you are reading? Did you garden or plant flowers for the first time? Have you written more letters or have you sat down over the phone and talked with those you were used to seeing, only to find out you had deeper talks because you were not just seeing each other at an activity but taking the time to talk?

If anything, this year has taught so many of us to really look around. Sometimes when we are moving forward so fast, we don’t look around and see the beauty or take the time to really communicate. I know living here where we have wide open spaces is truly a blessing when you think about the people living in the city in apartment buildings and so little space to get out and enjoy the wideopen sky.

If this week you find yourself sitting with fewer around the Thanksgiving table, look to the right, to the left, then look up and recall that memory and hold it dear to your heart. The archives at the Chief have taught me that things will change. We all have our faith and, right now, we BELIEVE our lives will get back to the normal we had and this pandemic will be a thing of the past.

I have written before that my great-grandfather passed on Christmas Eve, 1918 of the Spanish flu. My grandfather would have been 22 at the time of that pandemic, Grpa Gus was very active in our lives as we were growing up, but I never heard him speak of what their family went trough during that pandemic. I encourage you all to take a moment this Thanksgiving, write down something you are thankful for that can be passed on to the next generation so they will know what you went through in this pandemic.

It is up to us to be the change. Let us all do what we can let your heart overflow with thankfulness this year, pandemic or no pandemic.