What Am I Thankful For?

Today is Thanksgiving here, north of the border.  While Canadian Thanksgiving isn't the massive holiday it is down south, we share some of the same traditions on two different days.  We do turkey, family and that silly but often surprisingly moving "what I'm thankful for" around the dinner table before eating.

I don't have the gathering around the holiday table part of it in my life anymore but I still like the turkey and y'all can stand in and listen to my thankfuls.

I'm thankful for a job I love.  After years and years literally hating my job and most of what it entailed, I actually enjoy what I do for a living for the first time since I shut the doors on my store.

I'm thankful for my cat.  She's 14 and still pretty spry.  She makes me laugh every day and we have developed a shared love of naps on my recliner.

I'm thankful for the vaccine.  While I don't think I'll personally be returning to crowds I'm pleased for those that will enjoy such things again.  Hopefully we can sort out the supply chain before inflation takes too great a hold...

And I'm thankful that my government is committed to settling 40,000 refugees from Afghanistan.  I have said here before that this isn't a choice but a duty and 40,000 additions to a country of less than 40 million is no small feat.  I hope that my fellow Canadians do everything they can to help with this but I know that some will not and there will be those who will actively oppose the effort.  For those of us who love and honour what it means to be Canadian it will mean we will need to make extra efforts to compensate for the negative impact those individuals will have.  I expect most of the refugees will wind up in larger centres but I hope some find their way to my area.  They will be welcome.

While I worry about the negative elements of our society and their impact, I am buoyed by stories like the one I just read on Yahoo.ca this evening.  From an interview within the story:

"The moment we cross the ditch and a Canadian soldier grabbed our hand, we thought our worst life has been ended," he said.

"I mean, those boys and girls, they rescued us … they give us water, give us food in our own country, while behind another wall some other people wanted to arrest us, to murder us."

Khanjar was a physician in Afghanistan and says they were forced to flee because of his work on Canadian projects.

And he says his children, who experienced the tragedy at the ages of 15, 13 and 10, still have nightmares about it.

"In a very early age, they have seen dead bodies, explosions, murders, fighting torture of people by Taliban in front of them," he said.

"After experiencing such an environment and such a situation and to come in very good hands and see such hospitality. Believe me, you would think that you were in heaven and some holy angels are moving around you."

You can read the whole story here.

I'm thankful that I never had to live that.  In gratitude I'm happy to do my little part, whatever that may be, to help these people rebuild their lives here.  Looking around at my comfortable little life, I could do no less.

Happy Thanksgiving folks, whenever, wherever, however you celebrate.