Thanksgiving - An Attitude of Gratitude

For most of us, a feast like this with loving family

around, is what our "Thanksgiving" holiday has

become, and for that we should be very, very grateful.

For most of us it has become the expected and more or

less taken for granted.

Last night Iris and I had the opportunity to go to Addison

school concert where he plays the violin in the school

orchestra. We were pleased to be there and Addison

and all the others did a wonderful job. We were happy

we could attend. After the concert at the Willow Valley

School, I heard some one calling my name. I'm new

again in the valley and so I was somewhat surprised.

A young man, came over to me, and said: "You probably

don't know who you are talking to. I could place the face

but my memory, for the moment, could not attach a name

to it. He reminded me that I had taught him more than

20 years ago. I had known him and his family well.

In the course of the conversation he told me where he

lived and what he was doing for a living. I asked him how

his family was doing, and he replied: "We are doing very

well." Then after a little more discussion and inquiry

he told me that he and his wife had had five children.

One had died of some sort of heart condition a few months

after birth, two others, one now in her early teens and

another approaching her teen years were confined to

wheelchairs and had not developed mentally or

or emotionally much past the three or four year old

stage. He told me of the months the had practically lived

at the Primary Children's Hospital trying to get help

for their condition., all to no avail. As we took leave

of one another he again told me. We're doing great and are

very thankful for our experiences and our family.

An Attitude of Gratitude, had made him a happy person,

in spite of his trials.

As I thought back on his life and that of his family I could

see where this Attitude of Gratitude had come from. When

he was but a child, probably in his teens, his father, then a

bishop of his ward, was killed in a tragic accident while

getting some poles from the canyon for use on their dairy

farm. At the time his mother was pregnant with their ninth

child. They were deeply in debt, as many small farmers are,

but they buried their husband and father as their Bear Lake

Valley neighbors rallied around them. They stayed strong

in their faith and active in the Church. All nine of those children

went through my classes at school over the years. They always

did their best and never failed to say thanks for any help they

received. All of the boys and some of the girls served mission

and went on to get higher education. They have all been

married in the temple and have wonderful families of their own.

They have learned, as we all should, what is important in the

eternal scheme of things. After their mother raised the family

on the farm, with all of them pulling together, their mother

remarried and moved out of the valley. Before she left she

wrote a letter and had it published in the News-Examiner, the

Bear Lake Valley newspaper, expressing her gratitude to all

who had stood by her and her family during her trials. I never

heard her or any of her kids complain. It kind of reminds me of

the words of Randy Pausch in his famous Last Lecture: "We

can't always control the cards we are dealt, but we can control

the way we play them." It's up to us. Every cloud has a silver

lining, and every sunny day its shadows. We can emphasize

the clouds or the shadows if we choose, but if we choose to see

the beauties and opportunities and help other do the same,

we will meet the measure of our creation. "Things are going

great." and we will have "Joy". Let us all seek to develop an

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE.

I am grateful for all of you, for your abilities and for your

challenges. They can and should make us better people.

I Love all of you and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving

Season.

Dad