This is the last time that I will write on this, for a while anyway. It got three days because it obviously struck a nerve with me. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, most Americans give a topical examination what we think that we should be thankful for.

I have heard time and time again that people can’t wait for 2020 to be over. We all know what is going on between politics, pandemic and such as if the calendar is going to change those things. Are we as a people going to put our faith into the the number of the year or are we going to thrive despite that?

Thanksgiving brings out stories and lore as the birth of the United States of America. A small group of people left the Netherlands to seek religious freedom and a great unknown. The celebration was the end of the harvest season, one last time to celebrate and hope they did enough before things got really bad – winter.

Thanksgiving is a romanticized holiday that we have put a silver lining on a dark time much like our own. The very event that we celebrate was a time where many people starved to death or succumbed to illness. The native population was decimated by European disease and changed the landscape of the world forever. I bring all of this up to say that maybe 2020 will have a new perspective two or three hundred years down the road.

So again, I am writing about being thankful because I need to remind myself to make my world better. For me, 2020 wasn’t so bad. Yes it didn’t go exactly the way that I wanted it to go. Yes it will require new ways of thinking to thrive. No I didn’t get many of the things that I wanted. But, there is a lot to be thankful for here are many of the big ones.

  • No one in my immediate family or even extended family has suffered from the effects of COVID or any other major illness for that matter this year.
  • We rang in the New Year on a family vacation in Southern California visiting Hollywood, Disney, Universal Studios and the beach!
  • I completed a whole new set of pantry cabinets in a woodworking project that used lumber milled from this property
  • We spent three months developing a relationship with our exchange student.
  • I completely remodeled our little rental house, hopefully giving it another 20 years of useful service.
  • We replaced our beloved ‘Snow Dog’ with a handful of puppy Raya.
  • I got this site going after talking about it for a year and thinking about it four years. I am learning many new skills as a result.
  • I got the freedom to pursue interests and desires, testing entrepreneurship and creativity.
  • I have forged a stronger bond in faith and built techniques into my routines to continue to improve and be successful.
  • I have some steadier work work delivering packages and still have time to keep going.

If anything 2019 was a worse year for me. I was burned out and bitter beyond belief. I was at a point that I went out into the unknown and try to do better just like the pilgrims. I know that from a financial risk standpoint, it is a terrible decision to up and quit your job. But, there are times when you just have to do something different than what you are doing.

For me, 2021 is going to be a better year because of all the things that were done in 2020 to do so. And, it is not going to be better because the calendar changed. With that, I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving holiday. I thank you for reading and I hope that you consider the things that you should be thankful for.