thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. shame on those evil marketing villains for attempting to snuff it out. let's face it...it isn't as easy to exploit because 1) it is a truly spiritual day about gratitude without nearly as much of the hoopla (except the food and football of course), and 2) it's an "uglier" holiday in comparison to the garishly bright overkill of the october and december occasions. personally, i think the earthy harvest tones of thanksgiving provide an excellent respite from the consumeristic colors of mega-stimulation. and the sentiment is one which i continually fall back on as a major ongoing strategy of reprogramming for my soul. in the face of all the good, the bad, and the ugly of the tumult that is my existence, simply pausing to simply say thanks to the simply amazing grace giver is what life is all about. i am nothing, i have nothing, i know nothing, i look forward to nothing, without the inundation of blessings i've received from the one and only true and living God, over the course of my 39-year labyrinthine lifetime. yet since i have been so incredibly blessed, and will continue to be for the rest of my days spent gallivanting in this miry clay, i must respond with gratitude every chance i get. it's been like breath to me in these months of hungry humbleness and humble hunger. gratitude has been the wind beneath these fragile demented, tormented wings. gratitude has been the magic carpet upon which this tortured, fractured soul has continually been joyriding. finally, gratitude has been the wonderful watery wave carrying me over the falls, as in job falls, money falls, relationship falls, integrity falls, disillusionment falls, depression falls, suicidal impulse falls. and it's a wave i'm going to keep right on riding...the healing breath, the refreshing wind, the enlivening wave, the saving grace of gratitude. happy thanksgiving not just this week but every blessing-filled day.