A small but significant act of thanksgiving

Yesterday on what seemed a long drive from Fort Worth to Tomball, my oldest son casually, quietly showed me a lesson about thankfulness. As we waited in a long line for a stoplight to change, he reached into the side pocket of his door, took out an unopened bottle of water, and then took some kind of card from a pocket in the dash. As we passed an apparently homeless man sitting by the road, Colin handed the water and credit card to the man with a soft, “Hey, man!” I asked—it was a ten-dollar gift card for McDonald’s. And then Colin showed me his “stash”—he had ten or twelve such cards and said he usually tries to keep a couple of unopened water bottles handy. I thought it was a great lesson in being grateful for your blessings and sharing with others. The ”gourmet” with the hot plate is taking the holiday off—it didn’t seem fitting to write about home-made salsa on Thanksgiving, although I know families who have enchiladas on their menu. We are of the traditional school—turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, dressing, gravy, and apple pie. But I’ll be back next week with the story of those salsas. Meantime, I leave you with this quote from Willie Nelson: "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!