Thankful

For:

• The always-friendly ladies at Chick-Fil-A when I buy a chicken biscuit before work.
• Eyes, ears and four limbs: Without them, I couldn't have seen the untouched expanses of Alaska, heard the sound of rain falling on a barn's tin roof or held my nephew's hand as he learned to ice-skate.
• Every time I get to watch a game in Jordan-Hare Stadium with many of my closest friends in the world.
• The availability of choices, which so many people in the world lack.
• My dad's listening ear and my mom's giving spirit.
• Veterans.
• Every morning that I live to see another day. Good health is simply a bonus.
• The Internet. Without it, I'd likely be a different, less honest man today.
• The Astros' improbable run to make the postseason.
• Leaves that change color.
• Twice falling in love, expecting never to experience it even once.
• My brain's ability to store minute details, from the smell of the morning mountain air on the day my friend Brent first went golfing with my dad and me to the feel of the cold rain on a ferry to Inishmore.
• Electricity, indoor plumbing, water heaters — and everything else I treat as though I'm entitled to it.
• People who stand up for freedom, from Rangoon or Tiananmen Square to Kiev or Selma.
• My heroes, famous and unknown.
• Winter, spring, summer, fall.
• Sacrifices others have made for me to live the life I have, whether the settlers who braved the journey across the Atlantic or the rioting drag queens at Stonewall.
• Another holiday with my maternal grandparents, sharing sweet tea, turkey, ham, creamed corn, hash-brown casserole, green beans, black-eyed peas and yeast rolls with my extended family.

Comments

[Deliverance]

Brief. Simple. Real. Outstanding.