Community Corner

I'm Thankful I Won The Lottery

This Thanksgiving Day I'm most thankful for the freebies that came along with my winning lotto ticket.

 

The biggest lottery on earth is the one I already won the day I was born; and I'm living off the interest with every turn of the globe. On this Thanksgiving Day, I find myself most thankful for the things that came along with that win with no price tag attached. 

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What Black Friday special is more valuable than the eyes with which I see the faces of those I love, or that let me watch the blue sky billowing forth, splashing out its constant portrait of motion? When I look up at the infinity of stars dancing across the heavens, my eyes let me know that however great my imagination, it will never reach an end of things to explore and discover. And though no price could be too high that I wouldn't pay it for one glimpse of the midnight sky; its emissaries laugh at the idea of purchase, sending out their lumination freely flowing.

I appreciate the faith that children give me. I get such hope for the world from watching little ones. They give out their hearts, speak the truth—and share their tears and hugs—with such unmeasured abandon. Wordsworth was right when he said they are the ones closest to heaven, which trails about them in their infancy. I love that they have not picked up societies' yard stick for judging a person's value. The day before Thanksgiving, no doubt thousands of people took no notice and hurried right past some of this world's most wondrous lords and ladies, who had ventured out cloaked under wrinkled masks. But the little sages; they can't be fooled—they will rush screaming Thursday to greet their regal visitors. In that state still so close to heaven, they'll see the queen behind the mask, and know she's far greater than Cleopatra in all her glory, and they'll take their stand beside the god they know surpasses any nation's king, and proudly call him "Grandpa."

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I'm grateful the God I feared was an exacting lord before whom I would always fall short, turned out to be a life-giving spirit sacrificing wildly beyond what is reasonable, believing in me long past the failures any mortal would endure—and willing to wait with the water-on-rocks-patience that only those who love deeply understand.

I am grateful that my mom and dad showed me by their examples that pleasing crowds is a worthless pursuit. When I see someone being left out for weightless reasons and watch the chic passing them by, noses raised—fearing to lose an ounce of their popularity by association—I'm glad that my parents inspired me to find that I can sit down at the table with the outcast and sometimes discover a giant.

I'm thankful I am never bored. One peek out my window and the universe bursts upon me, whether shrouded in clouds or light. The day waits for me with bird songs, the bustle of squirrels, kittens coiling ready to spring forth their mirth in play, fields open for exploration, and lakes flinging out the sun from a thousand crystal facets. 



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