The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Well, it soon will be upon us again. With covid, drought, high hay costs and low cattle prices, “What” you may ask, is about to hit us again?

While not nearly as oppressive as the above list, this impending new arrival in our lives brings with it a new set of challenges. The event? Thanksgiving.

Yep, November 25th is lurking right around the corner. Thanksgiving, of course is the day dedicated to reflecting on all those things in our lives for which we are thankful. In a normal year the list is easy to put together. Family, friends, good health, a good crop, may it be corn, hay, cattle or soybeans, to just name a few, all make our usual list. This year, well, let’s just say it’s a little shorter list.

Family and friends. We can be thankful they are there, somewhere. We just haven’t been able to spend much time with them. An abundant crop? If it didn’t rain, as happened in our neighborhood, there wasn’t much. In other areas it rained too much.

OK, so everything didn’t go exactly as we had planned, so what? Name me a year when we got just the right amount of rain?

How about a year when we didn’t lose a loved one or didn’t have a family member need a little extra help due to illness? Markets? Of course they are usually very dependable. Yeah, right!

Truth of the matter is I wanted to mention all the downer events first to just get them out of the way. Now I can start on all we do have to be thankful for this year. For beginners, days, weeks, even months of “stay at home” sessions, brought us together with husbands, wives, kids, all whom we tended to take for granted. Personally, I was reminded constantly how important Sue is to my happiness. For her I am thankful. Add son David and daughter-in-law Kathy to those I was reminded of their importance to my happiness and well-being. We love them all. We have also been blessed by a loving group of “sort of adopted” kids who fill our hearts with joy by treating us like parents. Josh, Krystal, Brian, Kenny, Jennifer and others provide bushels of parenting experiences. We are thankful for them also.

When we sit down Nov. 25 our table will be covered with a huge turkey, dozens of side dishes and more than 20 people could eat, a sign things must not have been too bad this past year. We might watch football on TV. Football is not an absolute but TV is. Fortunately we are able to afford both the TV and the electricity to run it. We will have our usual small gathering of family, all four of us but the telephone will ring constantly with family calling to wish us “Happy Thanksgiving.” We will make several of those calls ourselves, too. As we settle in to our traditional holiday celebration with hardly any real changes to our routine from negative outside forces or events, one thing above all will stick in my mind to be thankful for.

I am thankful that I am not a … turkey!

Sue and I wish you all the happiest of Thanksgivings.