Counting our blessings

Life moves pretty fast these days.

The mathematical explanation is that each year, month and day is an increasingly smaller and smaller fraction of our total lives, which is what makes time seem to pass faster as we age.

Then there is the technology factor. Most of us carry at least one mobile phone, and it’s likely the sort that can be used to check e-mail, pay bills online, surf the Internet, text children and make “ordinary” phone calls.

In the Colonists’ days, everyone more or less knew everyone. But as our population has grown and the pace of life has sped up, we’ve lost touch. Most of us no longer know our neighbors, and many of us live in the Mat-Su Borough, but commute to work in Anchorage or elsewhere.

That makes the Thanksgiving holiday even more important. This day marks the beginning of a holiday season — Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s — focused on family, friends and giving.

And as a community, we have a lot of blessings to count.

On the heels of this week’s ice storm, we’re thankful for good roads and especially the crews who maintain them. We’re thankful for good schools that work to educate our future leaders. We’re thankful for Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and its staff that helps mend our bodies.

We’re thankful for groups like United Way of Mat-Su that add immeasurable good to our Valley on an annual basis. We’re thankful for our vast collection of church communities that operate a cadre of non-profit groups serving the least, the last and the lost.

We’re thankful for local farmers whose efforts give us the opportunity to buy local Alaska Grown agriculture and dairy products.

We’re thankful for the public safety personnel like Alaska State Troopers and local police and fire departments. These men and women serve us, rescue us regardless of the weather. This week when other federal, state and local employees were sent home early due to the weather, safety crews stayed on the job. Thank you.

Wednesday morning we posted a note on our Facebook fan page asking, “What community blessing are you thankful for?”

Houston firefighter Christian Hartley e-mailed to say he’s thankful for all the businesses and foundations that go out of their way to provide donations and discounts to fire departments in the Valley.

Facebook reader Rebecca Kaufman Racenet responded saying she’s thankful to live in “a community large enough to have a variety of people from different backgrounds, yet small enough to usually get a greeting from someone you know while out and about.”

But it’s Angela Champ’s note on our Facebook page that really made us pause and reflect. “I am thankful for my family and friends, all the rest of my blessings would be nothing without them. (((HUGS))) to all my brothers and sisters. Happy Thanksgiving!!!”

We agree.

The traditional fancy Thanksgiving dinner would be meaningless without our family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Mat-Su Valley neighbors.