Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Tonight, my emergency room is near empty.  My only patient is a blind and stuporous head trauma victim with a broken jaw.  My stomach if full.  My heart is swollen with gratitude.  My mind is wrapped in reflection.  It is Thanksgiving.


Tonight, I am thankful for my career.  I am obliged for a way to pay my bills and feed my family.  I am pleased for a chance to help the elderly and families.  I am grateful for a chance to help creatures of various shapes and sizes.  I am blessed to work with caring and hardworking friends.

Tonight, I am thankful for my family.  For the wife that I prayed would come to me and did.  For the children I did not know that I wanted and can not live without.  For the struggle and reward that is a marriage and parenting.  For parents who raised, praised, and forgave me.  For the big sister who protected, encouraged, and cheered me.  For grandparents who helped me see that we serve Christ best when we serve others.

Tonight, I am thankful for pets.  For stubborn dogs who chew up computer cords, children's toys, and deposit small white hairs all over my house.  For guinea pigs that squeal at the sound of each plastic bag and kick their back feet like horses at play.  For cats who run through my house at 3 a.m. and pounce on my head.  For unconditional love, for gentle affection, for humorous play, and for listening to my sorrows and leaning their head on me as if they understand my words.

Tonight I am thankful for music.  For beats that make my four year old kick his legs and raise his arms high in the air and smile.  For rhythms that make a dance or an embrace all the more sweet.  For hymns that help me make a joyful noise.  For harmony, a skill my father taught my sister and I...that applied to much more than notes on paper.

Tonight I am thankful for life.  For this amazing gift of experiencing one day after another.  For meeting new people and learning new things.  For making mistakes and the chance to correct them.  For a body that allows me to move, work, and play.  For a voice that allows me to comfort, teach, sing, reprimand, and praise.  For vision that allows me to watch my boys grow, see fleas, drive my truck, and know that my wife is beautiful.  For hearing that allows me to detect a heart disease, rescue a goat from coyotes, understand my wife's day, and recognize my child's cry in a crowded room.  For a nose that can not only detect parvovirus, ketoacidosis, tooth abscesses, and kidney failure when I walk in an exam room, but also can appreciate the fragrance of coffee, fresh bread,  mom's pies, and my wife's perfume.

Tonight I am thankful for memory.  For being able to memorize drug doses, disease names, or at least which book that I need to look in for an answer.  For the memory of what it feels like to be stuck with a needle and frightened.  For being able to recall how each emotion feels within me so that I can practice empathy.  For the mental vision of my grandmother's hair, my grandfather's sermons, my father's scent, my mother's hugs, my bride in her wedding gown, and my children's funny mispronunciations.

Tonight I am thankful for words.  Sounds put together and understood as an object, a feeling, an action.  Books that help me travel to other places and times.  Books that teach me and make me rethink my own life, beliefs, and actions.  Words that make me reconsider meanings of phrases.  The ability to choose them.  The responsibility to use the correct ones.  The awareness of which words will help and which words will hurt.

Tonight I am thankful for love.  For friendships that span years.  For relationships that benefit all involved.  For the small acts revealing you were on someone's mind and they took time from their day to do something for you.  For opening a door, giving up a chair, holding a hand, hugging a widow, playing with a child, feeding a stray.  For saving that last piece of candy for him/her instead of eating it.  For staying instead of giving up.  For giving it another try.

Tonight, Reader, I am thankful for you.  For the fortune to express my feelings and thoughts in this blog.  For the chance to share my experiences as a veterinarian with you.  For the opportunity to share stories of tragedy and triumph in an animal's life.  For the occasion to help you learn better care for your pet.  For the liberty to make you laugh or cry, be angry or amazed.  I am thankful for your loyalty in following my musings.  I thankful for your comments.  I am thankful for that you've shared them with your friends.

Tonight, I am thankful. May you, too, take a moment to reflect and give thanks.