COLUMN: The beautiful blessings of Thanksgiving

I spoke at a luncheon some years back, and I told the group I was lucky I had always known I wanted to be a writer.

When my speech was over, a man made his way across the room and said he needed to correct me.

“You’re not lucky,’’ he said, leaning in. “You’re blessed!’’

Those words changed the lens through which I view my life. Attitude and gratitude have become my cornerstones.

Every Thanksgiving for the past 35 years, I have shared some of those blessings with readers of my newspaper columns.

Some blessings are in large print. Others are so tiny I need a magnifying glass. All are acknowledged and appreciated. 

As we approach our annual day of thanks, my gratefulness spills over like turkey and dressing on a crowded plate.

It is for these things I am thankful:

• For church hymns, bucket lists and movies with happy endings. … — For foot lockers, shoeboxes and time capsules to preserve the pieces of our past.
• For random newspaper moments when I can channel my inner Clark Kent.
• For kind souls who concede the argument to win the relationship.
• That today I am not a butterball turkey.
• For Vitamin D sunshine, with a generous helping of sunscreen, of course.
• For porch popsicles, butterfly kisses, scavenger hunts and rain that falls softly on the fields.
• For my longtime friend, Jesse Evans, or as we call him, the “Jesse of All Trades.’’ He’s always there when we need him. He also holds the crown as Mercer’s biggest sports fan.
• For quiet, reflective mornings in my writing nook, an upstairs  room I call “Amore.” It means love and comes from the last five letters of my last name.
• For long walks and short lines.
• For sweet notes from former students.
• For red geraniums, white beaches and blue-collar mentality.
• For mid-afternoon snoozes (intentional and unintentional) in the vintage recliner that belonged to my dad. I call them “nappetizers.”
• That in another six weeks I will have completed the goal of reading my Bible from cover to cover in one year.
• For free shipping, soapbox derbys, stained glass windows, coloring books, comfortable shoes and old-timey lawnchairs.
• For road adventures, back scratches, Butler Brown paintings and lazy Saturdays watching college football.  
• For people who tell me how adorable my grandchildren are because they will never get an argument from me about that.
• For high ceilings, low carbs and when the tie perfectly complements the dress shirt.
• For emoji-less text messages.
• That there is no expiration date on great music.
• For dots on the map with names Deep Step and Hopeulikit.
• That two of my sons were able to accompany me on a weeklong mission trip to Costa Rica this past summer.
• For another longtime friend, Allen Levi, who wrote “Theo of Golden,’’ the most thoughtful book I’ve read this year. (I’m going to visit him next week.)
• For soul food, divine guidance, fireside chats, sidewalk chalk and dopamine decor.
• For little boys who love dinosaurs and, if there’s a hill to roll down, they will find it.
• For Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.’’
• That the American Camellia Society has named a japonica after me, “True Gris,” coming soon to a nursery near you.
• For reconnecting with friends.
• For M.O.N.I. (Middle of the Night Ideas).
• For days when I can remember my password and my pen doesn’t quit on me during an interview.
• For cast iron skillets and steel magnolias.
• For the memory of the late Gene Espy, who in 1951 became the second person to hike the Appalachian Trail. He was an inspiration to many.
• That I can still do my own stunts, although not as gracefully, and I won’t “let the old man in.’’
• For ziplines, cool customers, role models, unsung heroes, theatre kids and good neighbors.
• For the stories I still have left to tell.
• That I live in a community that is big enough where I feel like I  live in a city but small enough that I can walk down the street and see people I know. There’s a true sense of place.  Thank you, Macon.
• For Delinda, Ed, Grant, Jake, Summer Sterling, Brewer, Sterling Gray, Ginny Pope and Bennett.
• For absent friends and guardian angels.
• For all of your blessings, too.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Contact Ed Grisamore at gris@MaconMelody.com.