Thanksgiving: a time for appreciating those you love

November 29, 2009 | Posted by drrick

I have sat here today watching the UF/FSU football game. The Noles lost. My family are doing different things: one at work, one at friends, and my wife and youngest son here at home with me. Today has been a day where I have done little of any consequence, and it has been very nice to simply sit back, read books, watch TV and just relax. But it is also on days like today where I am afforded the opportunity to sit back, watch, think, and appreciate. The fact that this is Thanksgiving weekend makes this time even more meaningful for me.

If you lost everything you owned, all your stuff, what is left that matters to you? Hopefully you would say your family, friends and relationships. What makes life meaningful is not what we have, but rather WHO we have. Love means nothing if we have noone. For love can only be expressed in relationships. Without relationships, loving and intimate ones, we lose purpose and meaning.

While I have been typing this a documentary on my local PBS affiliate has been airing. It is about the terrorists that attacked the hotels in India and killed so many people and interviews with the survivors. Listening to the survivors was humbling. Many of the testimonies were not about the things they would lose, but rather, the people they would not be able to see again and regrets. I think a life lived well, will love well. And a life that has loved well, will die with few regrets.

Be grateful for those you love and for the fact that they are in your life today. Forgive each other, overlook differences if possible, and live fully in the present with those you love. This way, you are able to better appreciate them, and what they provide for you.

Love well.

Categories: Marriage | Tags: community, family, forgive, love | No Comments »