I took some time to think about the many things that I am thankful for. Here are a few that came to mind.
1. We attended an Army football game at West Point in October. Marcia lost her driver’s license while there. A few days later, we received an express envelope with the license. A woman who is an attorney in Houston, TX, found the license at the game, took it back to Houston, and sent it to us.
2. The four seasons of the year--Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall--teach me so much about the changes of life as I watch them unfold throughout a calendar year.
3. The opportunity to visit Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Malta on a cruise with my family.
4. Free public restrooms, which is not the norm in Europe.
5. The Saturday morning Wall Street Journal, which I can read at a leisurely pace on the weekend.
6. The two cups of coffee I enjoy drinking every morning to start the day, and for Jerry’s Gourmet Market that sells my favorite (Lavazza) coffee at $2.99 along with a perpetual buy one get one free deal.
7. Flat Rock Brook Nature Center, where I still go from time-to-time to walk, think, pray, and journal. I am always able to regain perspective there.
8. The Transformation Life Church, where we have been welcomed back after leaving eight years ago. I was honored to speak in services there on November 9-10.
9. The policy at my company--UPS: “We address each other on a first name basis.” This has resulted in a collegial, egalitarian work environment that I really admire.
10. My family who loves me and treats me with more respect than I deserve.
11. The books and things I’ve read this year that help me understand the world and myself a little better:
a) Yuval Levin, The Fractured Republic
b) Kenneth Woodward, Getting Religion
c) Kate Fagan, What Made Maddy Run?
d) First Things magazine
e) Rod Dreher, How Dante Saved My Life
f) And of course, The Bible
12. My hometown, Mt. Vernon, Illinois. It remains a large part of who I am even though we have now lived in New Jersey longer than I lived in my hometown.
13. The kindness Ernie Badger’s family showed to my great uncle, Tom Harvey, who moved in next door to them on Conger in Mt. Vernon in about 1977. They showed him genuine neighborly kindness during the final year of his life. This came to my mind in thinking about Ernie after his death recently.
14. My 3-4 bicycle rides per week through Leonia and around Overpeck Park.
15. The people who clear the asphalt paths at Overpeck Park that allows me to ride my bicycle there even a day after a big snow.
16. CBS White House correspondent Major Garret’s podcast, “The Takeout,” which I listen to every Friday when driving to work.
17. Hawthorne Christian Academy, the pre-K-12 Christian school that has been a blessing to my family in numerous ways through the years.
18. Two biopsies in the past two years have come back negative.
19. Adolpho, an eighty-something barber in Cliffside Park who cut my hair for over 20 years. He told me to do things when I’m young, because when I get older I won’t feel like doing anything.
Hopefully, you can come up with 19 things to be thankful for too!