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This Thanksgiving and every Thanksgiving, I am thankful for many things which have happened in my life. Gratitude sometimes acts as a solace as it helps to explain many of the things which happen in the course of a lifetime, and to help someone to use them to make their life better. A long time ago, I watched a movie called Polyanna, and was astounded by the sentiment of a small child who always saw the bright side of everything which happened in their lives. I tried the same ploy and somehow, over the years, it has always held good for me.

I am thankful for having parents who didn't care that much for me. It may seem a very strange thing to be thankful for, though the logic is that they taught me, as role models, what I should avoid in the way of behavior in my life. I learned selfishness at an early age, and also appreciated that it made one of my parents extremely unhappy. The link between selfishness and unhappiness which stays with me from childhood has always stopped me in my tracks and made my think about the way I treat people. No matter how mean people are, or how selfish they seem, I am thankful I have learned over the years that the unhappiness of others isn't my fault, and if I can help anyone get through selfishness and see the human being waiting to shine within them, then I have done my bit in life.

I am thankful for ill health. I can do many things in life which others take for granted, though my ill health taught me never to take things for granted, and to appreciate those days which are less tiresome than others. When you learn acceptance of who you are and what your lot in life is, it makes you very humble and happy to be who you are, regardless of any kind of impediment which may be imposed by illness. Those who can't walk can skip and dance across the pages of written work. Those who cannot stand up can do their running through fields of daisies from their own bed if they learn how to let go of those feelings of regret and remorse and simply accept the limitations put on them by age.

I am thankful for the cold cups of coffee which await me when I am too busy with life to stop and smell the roses. There are those in the world who have no clean water. There are those who have no food to eat, and whose cries are unheard. My penance of drinking cold coffee and food which isn't always to my liking makes me very thankful I am in my shoes and not theirs.

I am thankful to all my friends who have died over the years. Those friends formed who I am.

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