We may only do it once a

year - and that is certainly not enough - but

once a year is better than never at all.

So, as another Thanksgiving

Day comes upon us, let us all pause and say a sincere and

grateful prayer of thanksgiving and appreciation for what

we have been given - and maybe for what we have

avoided - during the past year of our lives.

For starters, we can be

thankful that our Creator God - be he a Father, or

she a Mother, or whatever - has given each of us the

breath of life and has created such a beautiful world for

us to inhabit.

Now, some of us may have

a few more aches and pains afflicting us than we had in

the past and we may have health problems (many of them of

our own making), but we are alive and that is better than

the alternative.

Sure, our world is not

perfect; certainly, the people in Turkey might wish the

ground would not shake so much; but, it is ours and so

much better than we deserve.

Thank you, Lord, for life

itself and our surroundings.

Then, each of us should be

thankful for our families - immediate or extended

- and our network of friends and associates.

After all, it is our

parents who gave us birth, and our children who will

continue on after we have gone in the ways that we raised

them.

Our family and friends have

nurtured us all, helping build us into the people we have

become.

Thank you, Lord, for family

and friends.

There are those for whom we

do not care much - and, each of us in our most

secret moments, can make a list of those we would call

"enemies."

They are the people with

whom we disagree and who seek to prevent us from

achieving our dreams and ambitions.

Sometimes, they are the

ones who ask those embarrassing questions and help keep

us straight.

Thank you, Lord, for our

enemies.

Of course, in this

materialistic world which we inhabit, we must be thankful

for those possessions we have amassed, the

"things" which we sometimes seem to believe is

what life is all about.

We realize that someday

we will have to leave them behind - unless we are

like that woman we heard about over in McDonough who

requested in her will that her pet dog be "put to

sleep" upon her death so they could be buried

together - but while we are here, we enjoy what we

have been blessed to receive.

And, we know, as the Good

Book teaches us, it is not money and possessions -

but the love of those material things - which is the

root of all evil.

Thank you, Lord, for our

possessions.

Also. we are thankful for

those things which have not befallen us in this year most

recently gone by.

We are thankful that we are

not in a major war, we are thankful that our growing

economic system has not collapsed, and we are thankful

that no natural or man-made disaster has crippled our

country.

Thank you, Lord, for

helping us avoid all those dire things which could have

happened.

And, finally, we are

thankful that we live in a land and a time where there is

the possibility of having an optimistic hope for the

future.

We are thankful that we can

pray that our children will have it better than we did

- and have a chance of seeing that prayer answered.

Thank you, Lord, for hope

- especially when that seems to be all we have.

[Lee N.

Howell is an award-winning writer who has been observing

politics and society in the Southern Crescent, the state,

and nation for the past 25 years.]