TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2023 - THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS

Do you have Post-It notes? 

(And this can be done with just regular paper)

Plaster your walls, doors, and refrigerator with “I’m THANKFUL FOR: “ notes.

And - leave them there!!  

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Take the time to write 100 (or more notes).

(Think you don’t have enough to be thankful for? Are you grateful for your first, second, third (etc.) grade teachers for helping you learn to read, write, and do math? Thank the clerks at HEB or wherever for helping you get your groceries. Thank the farmers for raising the food. Thanks to the processors for processing the food. 

(Let’s take eggs and oatmeal - my breakfast stables).

Thank farmers for having chickens and feeding them, collecting the eggs, and getting the eggs to be put into the cartons. The truck drivers get them to your store, the shelf-stockers get the eggs on the shelves, the clerks for checking you out, and even the people who make grocery carts and cars so you get the eggs home. You can thank companies that make the pans you cook your eggs in, the farmers producing the oils you use to fry your eggs, the electrical generation company (and/or gas) to get you the electricity to cook your eggs, the electrical company to get your light to see to eat your eggs. Thank the water company for getting you water to wash your dishes, for showers, for cooking, and more.

Thank the sewage people for handling the waste - from the trash haulers to those who work for the sewage plants. (Can you imagine working for the sewage company - I’m glad somebody does).

How about the oatmeal. Thank the farmers, the agricultural researchers who improve crops, the farming equipment companies that make the tractors, combines, and plows, the factories that take the raw oatmeal and process it, and the people who make oatmeal cartons.  

I put milk on my oatmeal. Some farmers get up every morning to milk the cows and every evening. Those farmers must go to the barns in the cold mornings of February and the hot days of July. Thank you, dairy farmers. Thank you, companies that make milking machines (can you imagine milking 100s of cows by hand?). How about the stainless steel - trucks that take the milk to the dairy processing. The people who carefully watch the processing - so that the milk is pasteurized and bottled. Can you imagine what a catastrophe it would be if E. coli bacteria got into our milk supply? And I also thank those that take the milk and other ingredients and make ice cream!!!

How about thanking those digging oil wells, building pipelines to get the oil to refineries, and processing the oil into gasoline, plastics, and other oil-based products?

I thank those who build the gasoline storage units under the ground at my gas stations and the pumps that bring the gas into my car’s gas tank. (I wasn’t around for the old-style gas pumps where the buyer/consumer literally had to pump the gas from the storage tanks into the hoses and the cars.

I thank those who make cars and engines that convert gas into energy. And those that make tires - thank you - exhaust pipes, mirrors, and the electronics that go into cars. I am thankful I have the funds to have a car and pay for insurance, gas, tires, maintenance, and licensing.

Thank you, p, the people who run the power system - from generating power to getting it to my apartment. Thank you to those working on better systems - from solar, water, and wind power. And those who dig up coal and those who work on railroads to get the coal to coal-generating power plants. I am thankful that other than a few hours two years ago, I’ve had 24/7 electricity - compared to people in Ukraine or other parts of the world. 

I thank doctors, especially my doctors, for keeping me healthy; I thank chemists who make medications and pills to keep me healthy. I thank my surgeon from seven years ago who fixed my body so I could still be alive to write this today. I thank all those nurses, physician assistants, dental hygienists, dentists, neurologists, etc. for their work.

I thank road construction workers, engineers who design the roads, those who build the roads (and even the Williams Drive bridge over I-35 (when that is done, it will be grand!!).

I even thank the political leaders of our country. Sometimes, I want more progress (such as gun control), but I realize they walk a delicate line. How to keep taxes reasonable and yet deliver good services.  

I thank ministers, rabbis, priests, imans, and other religious leaders for trying to make this a more loving world. I thank counselors who help us keep on track when we lose steam and fall into depression.

“In everything give thanks” 1 Thessalonians 5:18.  

EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS - not just for the good things - but for EVERYTHING. I look around my desk - for those who design laptop computers, for those who make printers, for those who keep WiFi running, for all those who support the internet flowing.

IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, NOVEMBER 21, 2023