Have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Little Mountain Therapy

The amazing Warner Hill

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. ~ William Arthur Ward

I write about my love for Thanksgiving every year, I’ve talked about how as a child holidays were always the worst time of the year, but somehow Thanksgiving escaped the drama surrounding the rest of the season. I’ll post my older posts at the end and I don’t feel the need tonight to reiterate what I’ve already written. Tonight I want to just be thankful for my life. Very little has ever been handed to me and I’m proud of where I am in life. I’m in a place where I can do the things that bring me joy by leaving my job every few years and going off on adventures. I make enough money to be comfortable and to help others. It wasn’t always like this in my life and really has only been like this for the last five or six years but I’m thankful I’ve finally reached this point in life. It demonstrates that hard work and education can take you very far indeed.

So today, I want to just recant some of the really positive things that just happened today that remind me how fortunate I am and how grateful I should be. So today, two colleagues did a gender reveal for the child that is coming in March. Great on its own, but it also meant I got a delicious little cupcake with some blue filling.

Also today, two friends who I met through a writing group, who also met each other through that group have fallen in love long-distance. Not just that, they got engaged today, a very happy Thanksgiving indeed! And hope for those of us out here who haven’t been as fortunate.

Finally, I got a package and a letter today from my littlest niece, at five years old this is likely the first letter she’s ever written herself. In the package she also shared some of her Halloween candy with me and sent me a spider. It was a wonderful gift to get.

My oldest sister’s kids

These three positive events just go to show there is good, there are things to be grateful about every day.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be up early and be on the trail, my Thanksgiving tradition since my days in Tennessee when I used to hike Chimney Top in the Smoky Mountains each year. This year it will be Walker Pass on the PCT, heading north for Owens Peak. A chance to stretch my legs, get in my head, and forget the world for a bit, good ole mountain therapy.

be happy, hiking, appalachian trail, tennessee

Rev Kane on the Appalachian Trail at the Tennessee border.

So be grateful my friends, give a hug or ten tomorrow, eat some really good food and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane