“I’m thankful.”

It’s the time of year for us to all look back on how things have gone, and are going for us, and hopefully feel that way.

This year that will be difficult for so many people. Not just here, or in the US, but throughout the world. So many people have suffered from the pandemic, and while there has been great physical suffering for many, the number of people who will go on in emotional suffering is a larger multiple by far.

People have lost loved ones that they expected to have for many more years in their lives. Children have lost parents; parents have lost children. Husbands and wives have lost spouses. Friends have lost friends.

Others have lost their jobs, their financial stability, and in many cases, their family businesses.

The pandemic split up marriages, it destroyed friendships, it tested all of us in ways beyond anything most of us have ever experienced.

So many people will not be able to say that they are thankful this year.

But I am, selfishly. Because no one in my family died. No one in my family lost their jobs. And no one in my family got divorced. I did lose two friends, and for that I am sad. But in the larger view, I’m thankful to not have lost more.

I’m also thankful for my wife, my life here, my mother in Florida and my brother in North Carolina. And all of my friends here and throughout the world who stayed in touch this year, checking in regularly to see how we were doing.

I’ve really had a year that so many people would be thankful for.

And I am.

I hope you are too. I hope this year has been “okay” for you.

For any of you who have suffered real hardships this year, I wish you my most sincere hope that the future will be better for you.

Happy thanksgiving everyone. And may every day get better for all of you.