Thanksgiving Countdown

Shot in panoramic mode in Sedona with an older iPhone5. The full shot is below, but Sedona is one of those very special places where we ALWAYS find peace. And that little speck of a person is Sheila as we hiked one of the vortexes.

It's 6:35 am on a Sunday morning, and the house is dark and quiet. It's even too early for Molly to come over wagging her tail for that first scratch of the day behind the ears. Remember, I always go off-track on Sunday mornings. So, I sat down a minute ago with no idea of what I was going to write about, and then it hit me. I want to write about, what I never write about.

Sheila and I have pretty much stopped watching the news. We record World News Tonight and then fast forward through the commercials and the politics. It doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat, Republican or "Waiting," none of us will ever know the truth except the amount of time the politicians waste arguing instead of helping. Yes, I'm a member of the "Waiting" party, like many of you, waiting for Congress to grow up. 

Oops, I'm starting to rant, and that honestly isn't my intention...especially when I want to write about Thanksgiving, but trust me, there's a link to what we hear in the news.

Like so many of you, I'm devastated by the tragedy in the world. At first, I used to think it's always been this bad, but because of social media, we just hear about it faster. But, the world is changing more quickly than we want it to and Mother Nature is especially on a rampage.

Think about the disasters in the news just recently. The fires in California are still raging, but we've never seen entire towns wiped out before with hundreds of people still missing. The hurricane leveled Mexico Beach leaving more people homeless. So many of us have watched the news, but the natural disasters always seemed to take place on the other side of the world. Now they're hitting right here and affecting communities we know and have even been to.

Mother Nature may have the reach to impact more people and create these horrible stories but it's what man is doing that gives me the most nightmares. From the temple shooting in Pittsburgh to the Church shooting months earlier to the security guard who was killed while holding down a suspected shooter and the children who were killed getting off the school bus - the world has run amuck! 

And here we are, safe and sound with Thanksgiving four days away. I know many of you go around the table and share what you're thankful for in your life. Well, how about if this year we're all thankful for our ability to help change the world? How about if we're all grateful, not for what we have, but for what we can do to help slow down the ugliness?

I won't deny I'm thankful for my health, Sheila and my life but Thanksgiving has to go deeper than that. Let's be thankful for our ability to help people who have nothing left to be thankful for, except their health. Let's be grateful for the fact that we can reach out and help somebody else on the planet. Let's put a little pressure on our fellow man to live life differently and just be a bit more helpful to each other.

It's hypocritical that I write about this stuff when in my own family we no longer talk to each other. Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday and a time for memory-making but the pain and everyone's inability to forgive or even take the first step back to being what we once were, is buried under tons of baggage too complicated to dig through. We're all at fault, and I know we're not unique, but it is sad to see the ugliness in my own family is just a microcosm of the world stage.

So, when you go around the table this year at Thanksgiving, first give thanks that you have a table to sit around, both physically and figuratively. Then give thanks for your ability to help change your little corner of the world. Think about it, if everyone would help make their community a better place, all those small communities add up.

Wishing everyone a beautiful Sunday with plenty of time to think about your corner of the world. Go for those eleven-second therapeutic hugs with those people you care the most about. Give "love" top billing today and most important of all, be thankful for all those people in your life who together help make a difference.

And for me, a big thanks to all of you. I appreciate your support far more than a blog post can ever show. Your feedback is so important and together we're all helping to make a difference in an industry near and dear to each of us.

Happy Sunday!