Happy Thanksgiving

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union."

- Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation October 3, 1863

Thanksgiving Day has always been one of my favorite holidays of the year. My memories as a young boy of travelling to Southwest Oklahoma to see family at my grandmother's home are fond ones. As the next to youngest of the more than thirty immediate members of the family, I was always chosen to assist in the cooking of the meal. I'm not certain if that occurred because I was talented or because my usual sleeping location was on a roll away cot just outside of the kitchen. Yet even today I look forward to spending hours toiling in the kitchen.

This is certainly a historical Thanksgiving for us all. With men and women of the Armed Forces and Foreign Service in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economy in such poor shape, it would be easy for us to dwell on what is bad. Yet we are fortunate that so many are willing to sacrifice on our behalf and to live in such a time with so many opportunities to make a real difference.

In particular I know that I'm truly blessed. I'm thankful to live in a country and state where we can experience a distinct change in government that occurs peacefully. I'm especially thankful to have my close friend Marc Young back safely from Iraq. I'm thankful for my health and that I'm imbued with the will to keep building a brighter future for this state and the optimism to always see a new way. To my friends and family who put up with me, I'm deeply grateful to have you in my life and I know you all enrich each day for me.

May God bless you and provide for you as He has for me.