A List for Thanksgiving

The biggest fear guests have at a Thanksgiving gathering is that someone will have the zinger of an idea to go around the table and let us recite what we're thankful for. It happened today, and I groaned inside. Don't get me wrong.... I have so many blessings and I can turn any situation into an opportunity to be thankful. But what if what I am thankful for sounds trite in the whole schema of life? And how do I summarize my cornucopian list into a one-second blurb that sounds authentic and spontaneous?

I shouldn't have worried. I was nearly the last person in the circle. Everyone was saying the very same thing that was on my mind: being with friends and family. That really was the theme of my day. But there was one more gift that I am extremely thankful for: HEALTH. Two of the guests had been battling with rare and strange debilitating conditions. One of them has no way to enjoy the turkey dinner because her intestines and stomach shut down a few years ago. Yet she was there, smiling and being thankful with the rest of us.

Here's the list of what we were thankful for today:
1. Opportunity to be with family/proxmity to family
2. Employment
3. Health
4. Freedom/being American/troops who defend freedom
5. Blessings from God