Today I did a bit of purging.  I got rid of some stuff.  Some of it was not easy to part with, I can tell you.  But…it needed to be done.  There is a time to move on in some cases.

I have a new job.  I kept some things from my old situation and I just came to the realization that I did not need to hold on to some of the “stuff” I still had from my old job any longer.  It could…and needed….to be gone.

In the process, I found a piece of writing that I did and I want to share it with you now.

As was the custom with much of my English teaching, I worked right along with my students.  If I assigned a writing task, I took it up right with them.  On occasion, some writing assignments were layered with multiple purpose.  Two years ago I assigned an essay that was to be themed around “Thanksgiving”.   What follows is my essay that I wrote right along with the students I made the assignment for.  The goal was to get them to write about what they were thankful for and to share it with someone close to them.  I thought I read this to some folks close to me.  That was my intent.  After asking my dear wife, Carrie, about it, I realize I had not shared it like I intended to.  I am doing exactly that right now.  I hope you enjoy it.  I certainly enjoyed writing it and reading it to my students in 2013.

Thanksgiving

With each passing year I find I have more and more to be thankful for.  I’m thankful for the past.  I am thankful for the present.  I am thankful for the future.

I have been hanging around this orb for over forty-five years.  When I look in the rear-view mirror of my life, I see a great deal to be thankful for.  I am thankful for my family.  I am thankful for the many wonderful friendships I have found, made, or in time just plain cultivated.  Many of my family members and friends are no longer around to hear me say thank you.  I hope and pray there is a way they know.

I am thankful for the present.  As difficult as the day to day may be sometimes, I am still thankful for where we are in the here and now.  I have learned so much and have seen more places in recent times than I ever imagined possible.  Thanks to the information age we live in.  I can see moving pictures and get glimpses of cultures all over the world that were once just pages from the reference section of the library or points on a map.  I am also thankful for those around me these days.  I have had the good fortune to be surrounded by great people both young and old on a daily basis.  It is doubtful that I deserve to be so blessed in this regard.

I am thankful for the future.  This doesn’t just include things I have circled on a calendar in the very near future.  I am also thankful for the days, challenges, victories, and laughs that are ahead.  Though I know the future will also render some sorrowful goodbyes eventually, there will also be a time for beginnings that we will celebrate.  Whether it is a new friendship or a new job (when I read this to my students I substituted the word job with “challenges”…I did not want them to think I was leaving) or a new reason that is yet unfathomable.  I look forward to more of the goodness, trials, and the beauty this life has to offer.  For all of these things, I thank God very much.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson