Thanksgiving a time to be grateful

As we battle the bitter cold, freezing wind, ice and snow of a winter suddenly thrust upon us all here in the Valley, we should pause for just a moment. Thanksgiving is the perfect pause in our busy lives. It’s a wonderful time for thanks and reflection.

Actually, it is far more than that. It is a time of gathering, a time of family and close friends with laughter and stories shared between young and old alike. It’s a time of the rich scents rising from food cooking on the stove and a turkey in the oven, the clink and clatter of plates and silverware being set at table. For many, it is a time of thankful prayer for another year lived.

I could go on about how the holiday became official during the dark days of the Civil War by President Lincoln in 1863 or about the history behind the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621 (not the myths that sprang up afterward). No, I would prefer to talk about what this holiday has come to mean to me and ask the question so often asked by many this time of year: what does it mean to you?

Thanksgiving is a modern-day harvest festival. Almost every culture on the planet has one. The customs, days and times differ depending on where one is. Thanksgiving is uniquely American. The spirit behind it is one of bounty from the harvest and thankfulness for another year of life to the Creator who gave us all that powerful gift. My beliefs in God are private and deeply personal. With that said, to discuss this holiday without mention of the deity would be very difficult and nearly impossible. Thanksgiving was born from such beliefs.

What I am thankful for generates a rather large list. Don’t worry, I’m going to keep it short and simple as an old G.I. should. So, here goes. I am thankful to breathe another day in life. Each day is a blessing to life and to be alive to experience it all. I am thankful for my family and friends, both near and far, for many are scattered across the country and beyond. Yet, the love felt is just so close.

I’m thankful to live in this great land, the raw expanses of Alaska, and to the communities of the Valley. This place has been a lifesaver and healer for many of my pains. Here I have learned to live with my PTSD. It may never leave me, but I have arrived at a workable truce with it.

I am thankful for the new challenges of writing for you in this newspaper and speaking on the radio. What fun it is to explore both in ways I have never dreamed. I am eager to learn more of the inner workings of both. This is proof that old dogs, or an old dogface — a term of endearment for soldiers of the Third Infantry Division, my first division in my Army career — can indeed learn new tricks.

There is more, but I am keeping my promise to keep it short. Now for that question for you, the reader. What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Will you celebrate with family or alone on the couch? I hope for the former and not the latter. Thanksgiving is a time to be shared, a time filled with warmth at hearth and home in the midst of the dark and the cold. It’s a day when the light of thanks shines to brighten the darkness. I hope this holiday is a good and blessed one for all here in the Valley and for the rest of the country, too. Happy Thanksgiving, Alaska.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.