Thanksgiving means more once you’ve left home for good.

Maybe that’s going away to college. Maybe it’s just moving out on your own for the first time.

Thanksgiving starts to mean a return to family, tradition, and history, rather than just another holiday on the calendar.

And sometimes it means giving thanks. Is this cliché? Sure. I am all for small steps taken to appreciate the spirit of a holiday. Just because it is good practice to take stock year-round of what one has to be grateful for, does not mean that we all do this so well.

I am a fan of reminders. They are all around us if we open our eyes. Sometimes they are leaves, other times people or holidays.

I have to admit, reminders can feel like nagging—dishes, laundry, pay the bills, don’t forget all the stuff we have to be thankful for… Blah, blah.

Problem is, there is a LOT to keep in one’s head and we often need reminders to get stuff done, even when that stuff is leading a happy, healthy life and realizing everything we have going for us.

As I said last January, New Years resolutions are one kind of annual reminder to take stock, start anew, or refresh the motivational stores.

Thanksgiving seems a fitting time to practice gratitude and h old our lives in perspective. So, here we go.

For starters, I am thankful to share my life and home and love with these two people.

I can’t imagine a more amazing family. The fun we share and the future we are building make me excited for each day we spend together. I don’t laugh harder with anyone than I do with Heather and Jakey.

I am also thankful that I can spend time in wilderness like just minutes from my house, sometimes on my way to the office. There are few better ways to connect to the Earth and feel centered than spending some time with your feet on the uneven, loamy soil of a forest floor.

Every part of the scenery roots me to the greater world. The deeper, more primal world without asphalt or high tension wires. The world where trees grow and drop leaves that become soil. Where these same trees sometimes crack and collapse under the weight of wind and ice, themselves to become home to small animals and finally, years from now, soil themselves.

We’re lucky we are surrounded by people trying to make the world better in big ways and little. And let’s be honest, it’s usually the little ways that add up to tidal forces of change in the world. In tiny, simple, daily ways we can improve most any life that we contact. Opportunity is always there, whether we seize it or not.

I am thankful I have the luxury and privilege of exercise. Fitness has remained a focal point in my life for going on twenty-five years, since the time I became a year-round athlete and not simply a seasonal sport player during childhood.

That exercise has looked like many things over the years. Today I swim with great people on our masters team and that is so fun. Our group rocks! I’m inspired by them and I’m inspired to get out of bed to come swim with them. That says a lot, considering the toddler situation and the work hours I keep.

And I signed up for a Spartan Race last August.

Phew!

It was a blast. Yes, diabolical, hot, dusty, muddy, and challenging, too.

More important, the race catalyzed my drive to keep training, run more often, take the trail with the worst hills more often, and get in the weight room three days week.

Last (but never least) I spend six or seven days a week around college students who are flying through some of the most vibrant, tumultuous, memorable years of their lives. By and large, they do this with grace and vigor.

Nothing keeps me both connected to the feelings of youth and also starkly aware of aging like hanging around 18-22 year-olds. I am thankful for the chance to see them soar and help in little ways along the path.

Thanksgiving is a reminder about gratefulness.

It’s also a time (thankfully!) for turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and brandy sauce. For starters.

We don’t all have to be grateful for the same things. But, we would do well to focus on gratitude as often as possible.