Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

Giving Thanks

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Wisp of clouds in a blue sky over a mountain top.
Looking to the sky for gratitude and Thanksgiving.

Gratitude

This is a story about riding a motorcycle and giving thanks.

It’s easy for me to overlook the good things in my life. I blame the rush and chaos of everyday living, but the truth is — giving thanks is a habit I’ve not fully developed. Just as Ebenezer Scrooge learned to keep Christmas in his heart every day of the year, so should I learn the same in regard to Thanksgiving.

I ventured out on the motorcycle on a fine, crisp November morning at 35F. Gazing into a blue sky I felt gratitude for having another day to live.

The underlying, original motivation for Thanksgiving may have been pure, but my experiences of the day growing up were one of holiday, complete with family traveling to be together, a huge meal, arguments at the table followed by football on television and grown men asleep in the living room.

There’s nothing wrong with any of that. But a fundamental ingredient was absent the day — gratitude.

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Thanksgiving Wishes

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Dog running in Boalsburg
A dog walk on a cold day.

A Walk of Thanksgiving

Walking with the dog through the neighborhood today, watching his simple pleasure being alive and running on the earth, made me think about gratitude and thanks for the simple things in life. Henry David Thoreau offered one perspective of  thanksgiving that I’d like to share with readers of Scooter in the Sticks…

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! my extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.” ― Henry David Thoreau

All the best to you and yours for a fine Thanksgiving Day.

Steve Williams